Monday, March 03, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Obama Adviser Says He's Misquoted

Austan Goolsbee says the Canadian government is... putting words in his mouth:

Barack Obama's senior economic policy adviser said Sunday that Canadian government officials wrote an inaccurate portrayal of his private discussion on the campaign's trade policy in a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The memo is the first documentation to emerge publicly out of the meeting between the adviser, Austan Goolsbee, and officials with the Canadian consulate in Chicago, but Goolsbee said it misinterprets what he told them. The memo was written by Joseph DeMora, who works for the consulate and attended the meeting.

Goolsbee disputed a section that read: "Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign. He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."

"This thing about `it's more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans,' that's this guy's language," Goolsbee said of DeMora. "He's not quoting me.

"I certainly did not use that phrase in any way," Goolsbee said.

(By the way, whether or not the Canadian consulate official took his words out of context, misheard him, misinterpreted them, or quoted him accurately, CTV is totally vindicated here, and the blanket denial from Obama looks pretty atrocious.)

"That's a pretty ham-handed description of what I answered," Goolsbee said of memo's account. "A: In no possible way was that a reference to NAFTA. And B: In no possible way was I inferring that he was going to introduce any policies that you should ignore and he had no intention of enacting. Those are both completely crazy.

All of this hasn't stopped Democratic consultants from railing against Vast Canadian-Wing Conspiracies, as Bob Shrum said yesterday, "you've got a right wing government in Canada that is trying to help the Republicans and is out there actively interfering in this campaign."

Those nefarious Canucks!

03/03 09:43 AMShare