Obama's NAFTAgate lie under scrutiny in Canada

In Canada its called Obama's NAFTAgate. When Barrack Obama was running for president during the Ohio primary he was caught red handed in a blatant, cynical and unconscionable lie to the people of Ohio, exploiting their pain and fear over their faltering economy and massive unemployment and using it for his own political benefit without a second thought about lying.

For those who don't remember Obama was caught lying in Ohio, making a promise he never intended to keep promising to get rid of NAFTA if he was elected, which he blamed for Ohio's high unemployment. But he never intended to keep that promise and this blatant political lie was exposed when a memo that included notes of a meeting at the Canadian Embassy in Chicago was leaked to the Associated Press

According to the memo, whose authenticity has never been in doubt, at the same time Obama was telling the voters of Ohio that if he is elected he would get rid of NAFTA, he sent one of his economic advisors, Austan Goolsbee, to the Canadian Embassy in Chicago to tell the Canadian government to ignore everything Obama was saying publicly about NAFTA, that he doesn't mean a word of it and its all for political posturing.

Extensive and accurate notes were taken of the meeting and someone in the Canadian embassy who obviously didnt think much of Obama's duplicity, leaked the memo to the Associated Press who published it.

It created a minor stir at the time as the mainstream press, who had an agenda to see Obama elected, chose not to make a major issue of it and played down the story lest an embarrassment that exposed Obama as anything but a candidate of "change" derail Obama's quest for the presidency.

But it did prompt an investigation by the Canadian government to find out who leaked the memo. And the emails dealing with that investigation, which the Canadians called NAFTAgate are now being published.

At the time, the initial reaction by the Obama campaign, which was typical of Obama's response to bad news, was to lie about the leaked memo.

At first they said Goolsbee was not part of the Obama campaign. When that proved to be untrue and that Goolsbee was indeed an economic advisor to the Obama campaign, Obama then admitted Goolsbee was an advisor but said he was at the embassy under his own initiative and not sent by the Obama campaign. When that proved to be a lie as well, Obama said Goolsbee was in fact sent but that Goolsbee was never told to say what he did. But the memo shows the opposite is true.

Goolsbee himself tried to deny it by saying the interpretation of the person writing the memo was "crazy"but documents and emails have proved what most people knew to be true at the time -- that the content of the memo was accurate. And subsequent events have proved that true.Obama did not get rid of NAFTA and has never even considered it.

The American press including people like Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, the NY Times, most at MSNBC and CNN chose to ignore NAFTAgate as a potential scandal refusing to report it for what it was -- an act of political deceit unseen since Richard Nixon, by a candidate who was claiming to be "different" and a new politician.

The new documents and emails obtained by the Canadian press through their version of the Freedom of Information Act show that the Canadian government who at the time tried to paper over the scandal over the leaked memo as well, conducted an investigation to find out who leaked the memo and what to do about it.

Additional documents show that far from their public position of trying to claim the memo did not accurately reflect the meeting, they were very concerned that the leaking of the document could hurt American-Canadian relations should Obama become president. No one privately questioned the accuracy of the memo which incriminated Obama in the lie.

Stewart Beck, assistant deputy for foreign affairs said of the memo in an email that it was "succinct, insightful and enjoyable read... Good job by Chicago!”

But others in the Canadian government were worried. The Canadian Globe and Mail quotes Roy Norton, an official at the Canadian Embassy at the time as saying in an email:

“If we're to retrieve any standing with the Obama people we need to be seen to be making it clear that we have never interpreted anything they have said to us as two-faced, cynical — whatever.”

But that is exactly what the leaked memo proved Obama to be. And as everyone has seen on other issues from healthcare reform to the middle east, two faced is what he has continued to be.

The emails between the government in Ottawa and the Canadian Embassy in Chicago not only show that Obama was dishonest with the people of Ohio and that the memo was accurate but that the Canadian government had gone into damage control to maintain relations with Obama should he be elected president.

It was the collective decision by the American media to report the existence of the memo but to drop it as an issue as it pertained to Obama's veracity, honesty, integrity and sincereity, all characteristics that have proved to be severely lacking in Obama from issues from healthcare reform to the economy.

But it was this decision by the press to look the other way over NAFTAgate that largely helped Obama win the Democratic nomination.