A friend of mine asked for an explanation of this whole Obama "NAFTA-gate" pseudo-scandal, and in looking around, I couldn't find a good summary of the story (no, Wikipedia doesn't count), so this (rather long) article is my attempt to fill that gap.

Obama's supposed evasion around "NAFTAgate" played a key role in Hillary Clinton taking Ohio. If there's any justice, her Bosnia fabrications should now bring her down in the remaining states.  Repeatedly this spring, Clinton described sniper fire, evasive maneuvers, a cancelled greeting ceremony, and having to run "with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."  But the pilot who flew Clinton into Bosnia, Colonel William Changose, said there were no evasive maneuvers, just some steep hills surrounding the landing strip. There was no sniper fire, or "we wouldn't have landed." "There were no bullets flying around, there wasn't a bumblebee flying around." His words confirmed the video of an 8-year-old girl handing Hillary flowers while Chelsea looked on from behind. Hillary got caught, to put it bluntly, in a lie: not "misspeaking."

Envoy faces calls to resign in NAFTA leak probe

March 11, 2008 Globe and Mail

Michael Wilson should step down as Canada's ambassador to Washington while the leaks that damaged Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign are investigated, opposition parties said Tuesday, as scrutiny moved from one of Stephen Harper's top aides to one of his high-profile political appointees.

Liberals are furious with Michael Wilson and are calling for his head on a platter.

Globe and Mail

More after the jump...

I read Talking Points Memo like a fiend; it's one of the most informative political sites out there.

Today, TMP covers what's going on with the Canadian envoy who leaked the bit of NAFTA misinformation to the news.

It is clear today that in Pennsylvania Hillary Clinton intends to attack once again on the Goolsbee memo.  With many thinking it had an affect in Ohio it is time for everyone to take a step back and arm themselves with the facts of this absurd situation.

The best roundup of the entire situation, the one with the least spin I've seen, comes from the CBC

I realize this is no longer a reality based community.  However, the fact is that Hillary's campaign did NOT give the ol' wink-wink to the Canadian government about NAFTA.  Only the Obama campaign did that (and then tried to cover it up).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...

This weekend in normal human calendar parlance would be known as the second weekend in March. In the Obamanian course of events, however, it is called the Pre-Mississippian, Moon over Wyoming Weekend. So our household, which operates on a little bit of both these days, is delighted to host a couple of brilliant/silly/serious/giggling wonderkids, on loan from my generous and loving baby brother and his wife. I can’t wait.... until Sunday (totally kidding--va-da boom-chink.) But seriously folks... I am going to blog these crazy kids this weekend. We’re going to do a little math, a little science, a little his’try and (if they’re lucky) read a little Mark Twain. The rest of the time, we’re going to watch films and caucuses and cook whatever we feel like eating. More to come.

I think this is an important distinction!

My apologies, I forgot to include the link
http://canadianpress.google.com/...

Today in the Huffington post, Roseanne Barr wrote one of the dumbest things I've ever read, and that is saying something considering her posts and appearances on Air America's "Clout" have amounted to some of the most uninformed, shallow political commentary I've ever read/heard.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

I have been in a bit of a funk over the recent developments regarding NAFTA and Hillary's increasingly vitriolic campaign to elect John McCain.  Today David Brooks has decided to try and talk Obama's campaign out of going after Hillary's secrecy and duplicitousness.  I'm not buying it.  In the last several days the Clinton Campaign has overreached and overreached badly.

Expect Obama to begin hammering her today in Wyoming and for his surrogates to do the same in their ubiquitous conference calls later today.

Hillary Clinton is having a town hall meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, this morning, Friday, March 7.  I just happen to live in that vicinity.

If any media members read this site, I would suggest you all bring your news cameras and your pens, because that town hall meeting is going to be a lot more interesting than any of you may think.

More below the fold...

More on Nafta gate

Enough is Enough!

'NAFTAgate' began with offhand remark from Harper's chief of staff
NAFTAgate...

It seems that Hillary was doing the wink wink herself.

I was on my way home from work tonight and heard on my local radio station the real story about this and then read this in my online local newspaper.

More after...

Consider if Richard Nixon had blamed Hubert Humphrey for breaking into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.  Or if George H.W. Bush had blasted Bill Clinton for shredding documents about an illegal arms-for-hostages swap with Iran.  Consider the gall, the hunger for political power in such a move.

Well, consider this:

I think it's safe to say that the turmoil surrounding the so-called "NAFTAgate" played into Hillary's strong performance tonight. On the heels of "Super Tuesday II", CBC, Canada's Public Broadcaster, has done a piece on the NAFTA scandal.

The CBC piece details the involvement of the conservative Harper government in creating a sensationalized leak, which itself had almost no resemblance to the actual memo, which itself is now being disclaimed as perhaps not accurate at all. We peel off layers of deception, and there is nothing left at all, except a successful attempt to promote bloodletting among Democrats.

Originally written and posted to myDD; I was encouraged to put it here, so I am. Hat Tip to csquared for posting the first link I saw to the CBC broadcast. I hope this diary adds something to our understanding of what happened, how, and why.