TalkingPointsMemo’s Eric Kleefeld reports on a development today that calls into question the Obama campaign’s honesty regarding their position on NAFTA, an issue close to the heart of Ohioans primed to vote in the Democratic primary next Tuesday.
A new report from Canada's CTV says that according to Canadian government sources, a senior official from the Obama campaign secretly assured a Canadian official not to take Obama's talk about threatening to pull out of NAFTA too seriously, noting that it was just "campaign rhetoric":
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs did not strictly deny the allegations, only saying that it sounded implausible to him. "Senator Obama does not make promises he doesn't intend to keep," Gibbs added. Clinton campaign officials strongly denied similar allegations.
(The CTV video clip posted at TPM reports the Clinton campaign supports its denial of similar allegations by offering the Canadian government blanket immunity to disclose the name of anyone from their camp who may have directly or indirectly contacted a Canadian official.)
If this report catches on, it has the potential {to} undermine Obama's outreach to working-class whites in Ohio, many of whom still resent the Clinton Administration's passage of the free trade deal back in the 90s. It could also take the steam out of the Obama campaign's claims that Hillary favored NAFTA, something she denies.
The source for that is CTV, Canada's largest private broadcaster.
UPDATE: The Obama campaign has labeled the CTV report "inaccurate." The Canadian embassy in the United States denies that the reported incident occurred, although acknowledging that the embassy discusses various issues with campaign representatives.
As a native of Ohio, I'd advise my friends and relatives to adopt a high degree of skepticism as they vote in their primary next Tuesday.
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It amuses me that Obama's campaign says, "Obama does not make promises he can't keep." What about the "promise" he made to Hispanic voters shortly before the California primary to provide licenses to the undocumented? Neither California nor NY were able to provide licenses to the undocumented and these are both liberal states w/ huge immigrant populations. If such an effort wasn't successful in these states, it's clearly not possible on a federal level. Obama's "promise" was just a cynical ploy to win Hispanic votes. Obama is a moderate, mainstream politician masquerading as a revolutionary change agent. Those who are paying close attention have got his number. There aren't enough of us because the media is mesmerized by the personality cult.
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