The Obama campaign seems intent on pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. On the eve of a huge election, it has been discovered that a member of the Obama campaign met with Canadian officials to reassure Canada that Obama's rhetoric against NAFTA is just "political positioning." When this story first emerged, Canadian officials and the Obama campaign denied that there was a meeting. Now that that there's a memo proving that a meeting did take place, the Obama campaign has adamantly denied that the official was on campaign business and stated that the individual was out there on matter related to his work.
Here's Obama's position on Nafta:
"I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced."
Here's what the Obama campaign official, Austan Goolsbee, allegedly said:
Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign. He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."
The campaign official first said he didn't have any discussions and now he admits to having discussions but claims he did utter the very words that were used in the memo. It's a good way to muddy the waters - good tactic but it seems pretty transparent at this point:
"This thing about `it's more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans,' that's this guy's language," Goolsbee said of DeMora. "He's not quoting me.
"I certainly did not use that phrase in any way," Goolsbee said.
When will the Obama campaign respond to this NAFTA story? No matter who you support, this is the last thing the Obama campaign needed. What's worse is that the Obama campaign lied about a retraction:
The Obama campaign over the weekend falsely claimed the CTV story had been "retracted." It has not.
Oops.
UPDATE: Reuters is still running with story