Watch Obama talk about Castro's progress in education and health care

[Deero]

13. Bingo.

Raul Castro had assumed the duties of the Cuban Presidency in February of 2008, nearly a full year before Obama was ever sworn in.

Furthermore, once Raul took over control of Cuba, he started to implement political and economic reforms that limited his own power and moved Cuba economy into a more, though certainly not all, market based system. Still, it was several years later when Obama began to normalize relations with them.

Obama had sought to normalize relations with Cuba from the start, but not without them meeting certain conditions, and Raul did that because he wanted to normalize those relations as well. Those are the reforms and improvements that Obama was talking about.