Obama: Pay Attention to What I Do, Not What I Say

One of the hot topics to come out of Tuesday night's Democratic debate was the fervor in which Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went after NAFTA and our two biggest trading allies - Canada and Mexico. They both stated, quite plainly, that they would "renegotiate" NAFTA - essentially opt-out of it until stricter environmental and labor standards are negotiated.  Aside from the fact that this puts Hillary in direct conflict with one of her husband's (and, presumably, her's) chief achievements during his Presidency, the anti-NAFTA rhetoric is seen as a sop to the labor unions, especially those in one of next Tuesday's primary states - Ohio.

Fast forward from Tuesday night to yesterday, and we find one of Canada's networks (CTV News) reporting that the Obama campaign had warned the Canadians of his upcoming use of an anti-NAFTA platform, and for them to explicitly ignore it - he wasn't going to do anything to harm NAFTA when he's President (Obama staffer gave warning of NAFTA rhetoric).

Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama's campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources.

The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value.

But Tuesday night in Ohio, where NAFTA is blamed for massive job losses, Obama said he would tell Canada and Mexico "that we will opt out unless we renegotiate the core labour and environmental standards."

The Obama campaign came out yesterday after the story was published and claimed, basically, that "we'd never do something like that". This morning, CTV fired back (Opponents slam Obama after CTV story on NAFTA), naming the Obama staffer (actually his "Senior Economic Adviser") involved:

The Obama campaign told CTV late Thursday night that no message was passed to the Canadian government that suggests that Obama does not mean what he says about opting out of NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.

However, the Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama's senior economic adviser -- Austan Goolsbee -- and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago.

Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue. On Thursday night, CTV spoke with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation with the Canadian government office in Chicago. He also said he has been told to direct any questions to the campaign headquarters.

It was too easy to pierce Obama's rhetoric this time. I just hope he doesn't blow it before he defeats Hillary in the primaries.

Comments

[judy]

barack obama early in campaign was asked what he would do if he could not make happen one of his promises after being elected president. he said he would exercise his presidential right to reassess the situation. he has promised everything to everyone and now they are talking about BUYERS REMORSE. just how many of his promises is he planning to reassess. can we send him back in 30 days?