Flip-Flopping on NAFTA?

Canadian TV (CTV) is reporting Barack Obama's campaign saying one thing privately to a foreign government and then saying something completely different, in public, to American voters. This story already has the making of a spy novel, complete with alleged back-channel conversations, covert signals, public charades and clandestine dealings with embassy officials.

CTV reports that an Obama official told the Canadian Ambassador to disregard the campaign's rhetoric on opting-out of NAFTA. That, essentially, NAFTA-bashing was just an Obama campaign trick. CTV reports:

Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama's campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources.

The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value.

The Politico reports the Obama campaign and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. denies this incident.
The full CTV report is here:


If Obama, as President, did break the NAFTA trade agreement, families in Ohio and throughout the Midwest would see an immediate spike in gas prices given the amount of oil imported from North of our border. But that seems less likely to happen if CTV is right and the NAFTA-bashing is simply campaign speak.

The larger issue, obviously, is an alleged case of misconduct on the part of a campaign official or the outright lying by the candidate. If this CTV story has any merit and you combine it with the earlier post on Obama's flip-flopping on transparent press relations a mosaic of hypocrisy begins to take hold.

But we may never know the real validity of this story because like all government cover-ups, and the start of any trashy espionage thriller, it begins with public officials denying it.