Inspired Voter - Thoughts from the Trenches…

Barack Obama has been hit hard in the last few days by false rumors that a senior member of his campaign phoned a Canadian ambassador in Washington to advise him “not be worried about what Obama says about NAFTA.” The details, obtained by a leaked memo, had been reported by Canada’s CTV News.

The official memo from the meeting emerged later, refuting the claim, but the damage had already been done. The negative news dominated the headlines for days and Hillary Clinton seized the opportunity to plug it into speeches and attack Obama’s authenticity.

“I don’t just criticize [NAFTA]. I don’t have my campaign go tell a foreign government behind closed doors: `That’s just politics. Don’t pay attention to it’”

The truth? The Canadian diplomat invited the Obama campaign official, Austan Goolsbee, for a general meeting that was held in Chicago, not Washington.

Furthermore, the official memo from the meeting indicates that Goolsbee talked about the need for a limited renegotiation of the NAFTA agreement, “in favour of strengthening/clarifying language on labour mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more `core’ principles of the agreement.” This is consistent with what Obama has been saying about NAFTA in public.

The Chicago consulate also issued a statement saying,

“there was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private.” (more…)