Who Called the Canadian Embassy? Someone Should Ask Jim Blanchard

Someone should ask Jim Blanchard if he had anything to do with the flap about NAFTA  involving the Clinton campaign, the Canadian embassy and a false press report accusing the Obama campaign of something instead done by the Clinton campaign.  

Jim Blanchard was elected to Congress from Michigan in 1974.  When Michigan lost seats in the 1980 reapportionment, he was redistricted out but ran successfully for governor in 1983.  In 1990 he sought a third term.  A diffident campaign, his perceived arrogance by many voters, and a feud with then-Detroit Mayor Coleman Young that kept turnout in Detroit severely suppressed all contributed to his narrow loss to John Engler.  (He is still reviled by many Michigan Democrats who blame him for opening the door to that devastation wrought on the state by 12 years of John Engler.)  In 1992 he was active with the Bill Clinton campaign.  He apparently hoped to get a good spot in the administration—supposedly he coveted the job of Secretary of Transportation—but instead he was appointed Ambassador to Canada.  

Blanchard is now with the Washington law firm of DLA Piper, where he chairs the firm's Government Affairs practice:

Consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top practices in the field of government affairs, DLA Piper’s attorneys and other professionals are active in federal and state legislative affairs, regulatory issues, government contracts, international trade, e-commerce and privacy, communications, anti-trust and trade regulation, energy, environment, financial services and a wide range of other issues before the federal government, state governments and internationally. The firm places a special emphasis on U.S.-Canada relations.

Jim Blanchard has extensive connections with Canadian political, business, legal and media leaders.  He would understand Canadian concerns about US threats to renegotiate NAFTA, and as a former governor of Michigan, he would also understand the political fallout in a Democratic primary from being seen as "soft on NAFTA" in a struggling industrial state like Ohio.   If the Clinton campaign needed someone to help them reach out to Canadian leadership, few are as well suited to do it as Jim Blanchard.  And if the Clinton campaign tried to create a controversy to put Barack Obama on the defensive over NAFTA, Blanchard would be well suited to help with that as well.  And while he may not have been involved, someone should ask him if he was, since he has also endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Oh, one other thing.  In 2002 Blanchard tried a comeback, and ran for Governor of Michigan.  He finished third in the Democratic primary, behind winner Jennifer Granholm and second-place finisher David Bonior.  His pollster on that losing campaign?  Mark Penn.