RSSCTV vs. Obama
Mar 06
I don’t know how much play this story is getting up here in Canada. I didn’t ever see it in the top stories of CBC, but I don’t read CTV and don’t pay much attention to the other big outlets.
Apparently CTV took a comment by an Obama campaign staffer way out of context and pushed it as a top story, which was soon picked up by other outlets. Even the Harper government got in on the game and tried to turn the story into something it wasn’t. CBC then does a story showing how wrong they all were.
A good summary of the details is here: CBC Exonerates Obama: A Post-Mortem
I hope more investigation is done of why Harper felt he should get into this.
Mar 06, 2008 @ 07:20:47
Even before the leak, Harper and his minister were already on the attack. Emerson was harping about how the U.S. don’t know how good they have it (under NAFTA). He also threatened to put oil on the table. I think it’s unprecedented for a government to interfere in another government based on campaign rhetoric.
The troubling thing is news commentators are warning this could have serious implication for Canada and its diplomats reputation. How could a friendly nation revealed what was supposedly said in confidence?
Mar 06, 2008 @ 09:21:06
The story seems to be intended to make Obama look like a typical blowhard politician spouting off about trade issues he knows nothing about.
His union base in the states bordering Canada can easily be convinced their jobs were lost because of NAFTA. Crowing about NAFTA has the benefit that Hillary didn’t think of it first, and in fact opposes him in a way that is both totally sensible and makes her look weak on labor issues.
Perhaps it’s the Democrat version of a wedge issue. The Republicans like to rally their base by railing against gay marriage, illegal immigrants, abortion and crime. Since Democrats generally support those things, they usually blame their problems on corporate America, India and the wealthy. Where’s Iraq in that list? You’d think that would be a freebie. But with the bloodshed dimishing, the Democrats are having to find other issues to talk about.