ted mccone is a senior fellow for the policy program at brookings. he joins me from washington. welcome back to "bottom line." ted: good afternoon. mark: is there diplomatic overtures -- they have dominated headlines. will those overtures be enough to open lines of communication between the u.s. and other countries in the region? ted: i think the process of dialogue underway between u.s. and cuba is leading to all kinds of positive results for the united states going into this summit. president obama arrives in panama with a lot of wind on his back. not only because of the gesture towards cuba but also in terms of the breakthrough with iran. a demonstration to the rest of the region and the world that this president will lead boldly through presidential diplomacy and try to turn the page from some of the past problems we've had to a new policy of engagement and partnership and those are the kinds of teams that are important for this region. mark: as peter cook just mentioned, there have been reports that president obama a soon move cuba from the u.s. list of state sponsors of ter