Barack Obama’s campaign is trying to explain a memo that paints the presidential contender as sympathetic to the North American Free Trade Agreement, even as he campaigns against it.
The Obama campaign denies the accuracy of the memo, which was written by an official from the Canadian Consulate in Chicago and obtained by The Associated Press. The memo describes a meeting between the Canadian official and Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee in which Goolsbee assures the official that Obama’s critical views on NAFTA and his threats to withdraw from the trade agreement are merely “political positioning.”
Goolsbee and the Obama campaign have strenuously denied the veracity of the account and have said Goolsbee was not acting on behalf of the campaign when he met with Canadian officials.
But the Clinton camp has pounced on the memo as it aims for decisive victories today in Ohio and Texas.
“This is a pattern with Senator Obama where we have a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of follow-through,” Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said Monday.
Ohio surveys show the majority of the population believes NAFTA has contributed to the state’s job loss and economic troubles.
On Monday, Clinton, who leads in most Ohio polls, launched a television ad aimed at working-class voters in which she promises to be the president who will bring a brighter economy to Ohio.
In Texas, where Clinton and Obama have been tied in recent polls, NAFTA remains popular.
Last month, Obama tried to portray his rival as a friend to NAFTA in Ohio campaign mailings that quote her as a supporter of the trade agreement. Clinton has said she wants to renegotiate NAFTA, which was signed into law by husband Bill Clinton.
Ohio University history professor Ken Heineman said the Canadian memo on NAFTA might not do much to hurt Obama in Ohio because voters are aware that many of the state’s economic woes predate the trade agreement.
“She’s singing to the choir,” Heineman said. “She’s not making converts.”
