[Marxism] Obama aides spill the beans

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, March 4, 2008
Memo Gives Canada's Account of Obama Campaign's Meeting on Nafta
By MICHAEL LUO

The denials were sweeping when Senator Barack Obama's campaign 
mobilized last week to refute a report that a senior official had 
given back-channel reassurances to Canada soft-pedaling Mr. Obama's 
tough talk on Nafta.

While campaigning in Ohio, Mr. Obama has harshly criticized the North 
American Free Trade Agreement, which many Ohioans blame for an exodus 
of jobs. He agreed last week at a debate with Senator Hillary Rodham 
Clinton that the United States should consider leaving the pact if it 
could not be renegotiated.

On Monday, a memorandum surfaced, obtained by The Associated Press, 
showing that Austan D. Goolsbee, a professor of economics at the 
University of Chicago who is Mr. Obama's senior economic policy 
adviser, met officials last month at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

According to the writer of the memorandum, Joseph De Mora, a 
political and economic affairs consular officer, Professor Goolsbee 
assured them that Mr. Obama's protectionist stand on the trail was 
"more reflective of political maneuvering than policy."

It also said the professor had assured the Canadians that Mr. Obama's 
language "should be viewed as more about political positioning than a 
clear articulation of policy plans."

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html

===

(Posted to LBO-Talk by Doug Henwood)

New York Daily News - March 8th 2008
Barack Obama's aide suggested renege on Iraq troop pledge
BY MICHAEL SAUL IN NEW YORK AND KENNETH R. BAZINET IN WASHINGTON        
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Samantha Power paid for her "monster" dig by resigning Sunday, but 
Hillary Clinton's campaign seized on potentially more damaging 
remarks suggesting Barack Obama might renege on his pledge to pull 
U.S. troops from Iraq promptly.

Even before the Harvard professor and Obama's chief outside foreign 
policy adviser stepped down, the Clinton camp was gleefully 
circulating another interview where Power called Obama's 16-month 
withdrawal plan "the best-case scenario."

"[Obama] will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as 
a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator," Power told the BBC in 
what the Clinton campaign flagged as eyebrow-raising remarks.

"He will rely upon a plan - an operational plan - that he pulls 
together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he 
doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the 
President," she said. access now, as a result of not being the
President," she said.

full: 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/03/08/2008-03-08_barack_obamas_aide_suggested_renege_on_i.html


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