Therefore, you have no room to criticize anything the Republicans do either to the American People or to Democrats.  Was it "good politics" when Dubya told Americans one story about Iraq and then we later learned that he had lied to go to war?  

Why is he reassuring the Canadian government that he will protect NAFTA?  Yes, politics is politics, but surely Canadian government officials know this.  Why did Obama feel the need to reach out to them via a surrogate and reassure them (in what he thought would remain a private call) that he would protect NAFTA?

Is this just more of Obama trying to have it both ways.  Tell Ohio NAFTA will be abolished if it's not changed, tell Canada don't worry, I'll protect NAFTA.  It begs the question: was he lying then or is he lying now?  And why lie to voters, then turn around and assure a foreign country that he was just, in fact, lying?

What does it accomplish?

I'm quite shocked that you feel this way.  If Obama is lying to us about this, what else is he lying about?

And can any country in the future believe what he says, if he gets the presidency?  Can the American people?  We just had a lying weasal in the White House tell us years ago that there were WMDs in Iraq, that we were on the verge of seeing a nuclear cloud over our heads, etc.

I'm not familiar with IL politics enough to know what kind of issue NAFTA is in the state.  This could be Obama's way of making sure that, if he loses the election, he still is welcome back in his old seat and still has support.

But he's right, the al qaeda comment might get more traction over the long term.

But I think this story is important for the reason I think i just described above.

I've been having this nastly sort of groundhog day experience on blogs lately.

Obama is criticized.  When that criticism isn't called a racist attack, and when it becomes clear that the criticism is valid, the invariable response is either "all politicians do it too," or "Hillary does it to," or "Hillary is the same."

I don't care about NAFTA or Ohio (inasmuch as this phone call is concerned) what I care about is motivation.

instead of getting Hillary who will run circles
around the lifers in the Congress.

hang in there Hillary! We're pulling for you.

There was no need to say ANYTHING to the Canadians.  Time enough to explain it after the election.  This was arrogance on somebody's part and careless in the extreme.

Income and wealth disparity are most certainly looming problems for us.  HOWEVER I don't believe that NAFTA has had any negative impact in this regard.  

Free trade benefits everyone.  The problem is that free trade benefits the wealthy in clearer ways than it does the poor and the middle classes.

The biggest problem with the NAFTA criticisms is that they are almost ALWAYS anecdotal arguments and not empirical arguments.  With or without NAFTA this country will ALWAYS have winners and losers.  That is how a free market operates.  We can try to mitigate against that but it will always happens.  When the southwest states boom the midwest states may wane.  When the southeast booms the northeast may wane.  Just the way it is.

"It is a totally inaccurate story," he said. "I did not call these people and I direct you to the press office."

~~~~

ABC News spoke to Goolsbee, Thursday, and who denied calling the Canadian embassy in Washington, or calling Rioux, but wouldn't confirm or deny whether he had spoke to Rioux about Obama's NAFTA rhetoric.

"It's not correct that I contacted them," Goolsbee told ABC News Thursday. "They contacted me at one point to say 'hello' because their office is around the corner but it is not correct that I contacted them at all," he said.

"I am not confirming or denying any meetings with anyone," Goolsbee told ABC News, directing queries to Bill Burton, Obama's campaign spokesperson.

~~~~

Now this update from ABC:

Both the Canadian Embassy and the Obama campaign have repeatedly denied the CTV report.

However, a source close to the Canadian prime minister's office tells ABC News that the original communication was between Austan Goolsbee, Obama's senior economic adviser and an economics professor at the University of Chicago, and Georges Rioux, Canada's consul general in Chicago, about Obama's rhetoric against NAFTA.

According to the source, Wilson exaggerated the communication between the Obama campaign and the Canadian official during discussions this week with Ian Brodie, the prime minister's chief of staff, who leaked the story to CTV.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=4365922