Barack Obama is proud of his inexperience, believing that his rivals' experience amounts to knowledge about how to start and continue a foreign policy debacle.

The New Hampshire Union Leader's Stephen Beale reports Obama said, "I love when people criticize me about my foreign policy experience when they got either snowed into or intimidated into supporting the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation, and I'm thinking well what good was your experience if you showed such poor judgment?"

Obama said government isn't the solution to every problem, but Americans can solve their problems and government can be effective. "When I talk about that sometimes people, especially the Washington press corps, roll their eyes and say, 'Ah, he's so naive. He's talking about hope again. He's a hope-monger. He's a hope peddler,'" Obama said. "But you know what, I stand guilty as charged. I am hopeful and I am optimistic."

Obama is also optimistic about increasing black turnout if nominated. "I'm probably the only candidate who having won the nomination can actually redraw the political map," Obama said. "I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I'm the nominee, goes up 30 percent around the country, minimum. Young people's percentage of the vote goes up 25-30 percent. So we're in a position to put states in play that haven't been in play since LBJ."

Ahead of a visit to the swing state of Florida, Obama penned an opinion piece for the Miami Herald that proclaims a "democratic opening" in Cuba should be foremost policy goal of the U.S. This is primarily achieved by empowering Cubans to make them "less dependent on the Castro regime in fundamental ways." As president Obama would "grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island." Still, it makes "strategic sense to hold on to important inducements we can use in dealing with a post-Fidel government, for it is an unfortunate fact that his departure by no means guarantees the arrival of freedom on the island."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and John McCain addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention. The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny reports that Clinton "devoted only a small part" of her speech to Iraq, speaking about improved veterans services in the rest. On Iraq, Clinton said the surge is reaping military success, the gains are untenable without a political solution to the fighting. "We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar Province, it's working," Clinton said. "We're just years too late changing our tactics. We can't ever let that happen again. We can't be fighting the last war; we have to be preparing to fight the new war."

McCain said it was in the best interest of the U.S. to stay in Iraq. "As long as there is a prospect for not losing this war, then we must not choose to lose it," McCain said in a speech "interrupted by friendly applause from people seated throughout the hall."

Two dark horse candidates made news yesterday. NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "Nobody's going to elect me president of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen." In Georgia, former senator Sam Nunn said he's considering a run for president and has spoken with the bi-partisan Unity '08 group. Nunn said he would wait to make a decision after both parties' nominees have been selected and he's heard what they have to say.

On the GOP side, two campaign's finer details are news items today. Fred Thompson is facing an election complaint to the FEC from a former Democratic staffer and blogger who claims Thompson is "ignoring the letter and spirit" by not filing a declaration of candidacy with the FEC (though he's dealing with the IRS for now). The FEC has received the complaint and Thompson has 15 days to respond. At the same time, a press aide to Thompson left the campaign.

Mitt Romney's campaign is altering its television ad strategy. The Politico's Jonathan Martin reports Romney has purchased ads on Maine TV stations that broadcast in to the "lightly-populated" northeastern portion of New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Marc Ambinder reports that Romney's campaign is reducing the volume of TV ads in early primary states, a not unusual move for campaigns in August.

Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.

--------------------------------------------
Follow the RCP Blog on Twitter.
Become a fan of RCP on Facebook.
--------------------------------------------