Well thank God that you tracked this down Eric, Thank God. Maybe this will undermine obama's appeal to voters of all types and vault the clintons over the top for the dem party nomination. Good Job.

So if similar stories are told about both Clinton and Obama, why should the stories against Obama get more traction? It seems to me that since Clinton needs the votes more and she has a longer history with NAFTA, that if anything the stories about Clinton should get more traction.

by the way, Michael Wilson is a Stephen Harper appointee and is a supporter of the Iraq occupation.

This sounds like bullshit to me. You really need better sourcing, or you need to pull this. Both the main site and EC have this as their featured post.

But, Eric and Josh, if you can defend this post by showing that you have posted anything negative towards Clinton that is as weakly sourced. Otherwise, once again, your objectivity is fairly questioned.

Ah, the media. Willing to pounce on anything for ratings and hype it before any good information comes out.

In other news, Rasmussen is now saying Obama has a 4-point lead in Texas.

I know, it's Rasmussen, so it's not that reliable, but it's bigger news than the story that is the topic of this article.

I believe the point here is that the Canadians needn't worry about Obama or anyone pulling out of NAFTA, because it won't come to that. Even if this is accurate, it doesn't imply Obama hasn't meant everything he said about NAFTA, it is only telling the Canadians to calm down about it because we will hit that road when we get to it, and that President Obama will work hard with both Mexico and Canada to fix the treaty.

It is just trying to keep people from being overly excited (like this http://www.nysun.com/article/71983) by Russert's trying to make an issue of killing NAFTA altogether.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN STRONGLY REPUDIATES THE REPORT

The campaign just issued a press release:

"The news reports on Obama's position on NAFTA are inaccurate and in no way represent Senator Obama’s consistent position on trade. When Senator Obama says that he will forcefully act to make NAFTA a better deal for American workers, he means it. Both Canada and Mexico should know that, as president, Barack Obama will do what it takes to create and protect American jobs and strengthen the American economy -- that includes amending NAFTA to include labor and environmental standards. We are currently reaching out to the Canadian embassy to correct this inaccuracy," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

Please update your story to reflect this.

If there's one thing I hate, it's probably 'news' stories based entirely on unnamed/anonymous sources.

News organizations should run like courtrooms: give a credible source for displayed evidence, or dismiss it forthwith as hearsay. I'm so tired to seeing "hard-nosed investigative journalism" being reduced to unsourced inuendo and implications, driven by the power of suggestion.

It's tenuous garbage like this that mars our political process.

'But, Eric and Josh, if you can defend this post by showing that you have posted anything negative towards Clinton that is as weakly sourced. Otherwise, once again, your objectivity is fairly questioned.'

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/hillary_spokesperson_blasts_re.php

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/obama_camp_hits_hillary_over_d.php

Sounds like a non-denial denial. This could be devastating!

Consider the timing. Consider the source. Consider it bullshit!

Hmmm... Maybe it's unfair but I can't help but wonder if Bill Clinton's good friend in Canadian government Belinda Stronach is in some way connected to this.

Is it true that McCain is actually a foreigner and not eligible to run for President?

There are a lot of hysteria in the response to this report from my fellow Obama supporters. Yes, campaigns do talk to foreign governments, and foreign governments reach out to those campaigns, especially as it becomes more and more likely that the candidate will turn out to be the President the foreign government eventually has to deal with. It's good to begin developing these relations early.

It would be hard to believe that Obama campaign communications with the Canadian government, or Clinton camapign communications with the Canadian government, or McCain campaign communications with the Canadian government have not touched on NAFTA. Of course they have. It's a key US-Canadian issue.

Whether this is a case of a Canadian official misunderstanding Obama's representative, or a case of that representative speaking out of turn, or a case of a politically hostile Canadian official intentionally misrepresenting the representative's words, the upshot is the same: What Obama needs to do is state his position loudly and unequivocally, so both the US public and Canadian government and public understand what it is. That's what he did today.

When Obama is president, these sorts of episodes will be routine parts of the diplomatic game, as they are for any President. There are always going to be cases where a diplomat, taking it upon himself to explain the US government's position, or interpret our domestic politics for his foreign interlocutors, is going to say something that is actually inconsistent with our government's position. You clear it up and move on.

Ben:

You've made it clear, repeatedly that you are no fan of HRC, but basically you write posts that, I think, are grounded fundamentally with integrity. You've overreached here. The source of this report is not the HRC campaign, or Matt Drudge, or Fox News. To the contrary, it is CTV, Canada's largest private news outlet.

Both Clinton and Obama are full of it. Adding labor and environmental standards will do nothing to improve conditions of American workers. Wages in Mexico are about a dollar/hr and a third of that in China. In fact there was a story yesterday on NPR about plants being moved from Mexico to China because wages are too high in Mexico!

Environmental and labor standards in NAFTA will do nothing to change the fact that labor is 15 to 50 times cheaper in developing countries.

The migration of manufacturing jobs is a part of globalization. Promising to get those jobs back or stop this process is just that: empty promises. I see a two-part solution:

- Investing in innovation and better education to create "new economy" jobs
- Opening foreign markets to services provided by American companies

oh great, just what we need, more negative news stories for Obama to destabilize the race. thank you unnamed Canadian officials. we were on our way to getting this nomination settled clearly, and now you may just allow Clinton the justification to stumble on for another 6 ugly weeks of negative campaigning when she squeaks out a win in Ohio.

I'm starting to see a pattern here. An unnamed conservative source makes an allegation against Obama and Clinton, but mostly Obama, and clinton comes out right on top of the report (almost as if they knew it was coming?..nah) and issues some ultimatum or forceful response and then points out that Obama's response isn't nearly as strong and ultimate. Then Obama comes out with a statement saying it's a patently false allegation and the story goes away - but the damage is done, because nobody ever sticks around long enough to notice the strong denial a day later in the back pages of the paper or on the 22 minute of the news rotation.

They are chipping away at Obama -- and if they had started doing this right after Iowa, it might have worked (for Clinton)- but it's too late now and they've made too many blunders. This strategy might hold Ohio for Clinton, but it's not going to put her over the top.

But from the Republican perspective, this perfect timing, because they do still have enough time between now and November to chip Obama down and they can manufacture non-stories like this until the end of time. It's time to start going after McCain's credibility - show how much he is NOT the Maverick straight talker he claims to be. Only we can do it with McCain's own words, not unnamed sources in the newly elected conservative government of another country quoting an unnamed staffer of the campaign.

Sure, using Drudge as the source claiming the Obama picture in Kenyan garb was being passed around by Clinton, when the passing around was done BY DRUDGE!

LOL...

This is SOOO Typical of Obama. Now they will spin this and MSNBC will undoubtedly help them spin it.

Keith Oberman will be pulling out his girly pom poms and little cheer leading skirt and do some jumping and twirling for Obama tonight. Heck he might even show some arse.

You'll have to tell me about it tho, cause I quit watching MSNBC some time ago because of their bias coverage. I'll be watching CNN and Fox.

Betcha Lou Dobbs will be on this ... Obama can't spin Lou.

Good reporting!

Rae

From Taylor Marsh Blog:

"I called CTV to verify the story, especially given the Obama campaign's cries that it's "inaccurate." After asking Greg McIsaac of CTV if they were sticking by their story, he quickly called me back with verification. The facts of our story are accurate."

"Canada has a 'truth in broadcasting' law. this story had to be more than gossip in the beginning or it would have never made it to air."

"As for the ambassador, his name is Michael Wilson and he is DC based as is the reporter who broke the story. Tom Clark, the reporter, is actual CTV's DC bureau chief."

Michael Wilson Has not denied this story.

AKA: Self loathing female!!!

Please donate at www.hillaryclinton.com

Texas, Ohio, RI, Vermont and PA please vote and bring your friends to vote to push Hillary over the 60% threshold!!!

Carol Soprano= Self loathing female!!!

Please donate at www.hillaryclinton.com

Texas, Ohio, RI, Vermont and PA please vote and bring your friends to vote to push Hillary over the 60% threshold!!!

Lets not forget that this video also reports the Clinton campaign is also accused of the same thing. And as of now, there is no evidence that neither the Obama camp nor the Clinton camp made these comments.