When Obama Was Caught Lying About NAFTA in Ohio While Attacking Clinton For Supporting It.

What's that old saying about dogs and fleas? The one thing Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama truly have in common is not his policies but that they are both charter members of The Liars Club as the above 2008 Obama campaign ad ripping Clinton on NAFTA clearly shows.

 It also exposes the backdoor under the table deal between Clinton and Obama where Obama,who in 2008 said of Clinton that she has no convictions but  has agreed to support her and pull strings for her in return for her fealty to him and his policies which Clinton agreed to in spite of having called Obama a liar in 2008, which shows how fundamentally dishonest they both are. Shakespeare would have had a ball with both of them.

In 2008 right before the Ohio primary, Obama attacked Clinton for her vocal  support of NAFTA which had cost Ohio tens of thousands of jobs. But in what could be called a Shakespearian twist if it wasnt so serious and pathetic, Obama was caught lying himself about his own position on NAFTA in one of the most underhanded lies ever told by a politician running for office. Showing just how much the two have in common. 

What happened in 2008 reveals much about the character of both Clinton and Obama and with the two of them practically campaigning as a team  now, shows why neither could be trusted as Clinton tries to run as a third Obama term.

But during the 2008 primary in Ohio, while attacking Clinton over her support of NAFTA,  Obama himself was caught red handed in what might be the most insidious, underhanded, callous, self serving political lies in the history of American  presidential campaign politics.

It was a lie so callous, cynical and exploitive of the suffering of people in Ohio getting caught in the lie would have ended not just the candidacy of anyone else, but probably their  entire political career. Obama got away with it when the news media made it a two day story and eventually moved on as they did repeatedly in ignoring Obama's lies and reneging on promises throughout the campaign ( and still do)  instead of treating it for what it was -- maybe the worst political lie since Nixon.

With Clinton now staking her candidacy on supporting Obama policies and with trade, the economy, and the loss of jobs as a result of lousy trade deals front and center in this years campaign and one of the cornerstones of the Bernie Sanders campaign, its worth remembering what happened in Ohio in 2008. Especially with Clinton currently lying through her teeth about Sanders and his auto bailout vote, and see just how much lying Ohioians can put up with .

Back in 2008, Obama was campaigning all over Ohio telling voters that the reason for their high unemployment was NAFTA which Obama tied to Hillary Clinton as the above campaign ad shows. Ohio had lost 275,000 jobs and that was before the economic crisis. Obama looked into the eyes of the unemployed in Ohio, told them NAFTA was their problem and vowed that if he were elected president he would get rid of NAFTA and that would solve the unemployment problems in Ohio. 

But not unlike the situation now with Hillary Clinton's speeches to Wall Street that she refuses to make public and is suspected of telling Wall Street one thing and telling the public another, Obama sent one of his economic advisors, Austan Goolsbee,  to the Canadian embassy in Chicago to tell them to ignore everything they hear Obama saying publicly about  NAFTA, he has no intention of getting rid of it and what he was saying publicly was just for political reasons.

Someone at the Canadian embassy didn't care much for Obama's duplicity and leaked the story to an AP reporter, Nedra Pickler, who wrote the story. 

It was picked up by some in the national media and Obama spent the next few days trying to do damage control but was caught in one lie after another trying to deny it. 

First he said he didn't know any Austan Goolsbee. When it was pointed out that Goolsbee was listed as an economic advisor to his campaign Obama's response was essentially, " oh that Austan Goolsbee". Because, you know, the name is so common it's easy to understand how someone could not recognize it. But, Obama said, he never sent him to the Canadian embassy in Chicago.

When the guest books at the embassy were checked and it did indeed show that Goolsbee visited the embassy on the date the AP said he did Obama said, okay, well maybe Goolsbee did go to the embassy but he went on his own, for his own reasons and not as a representative of the Obama campaign.

When the guest book showed that Goolsbee signed in as a representative of the Obama campaign Obama said, okay well, maybe he does work for the campaign and maybe he did go to the embassy and maybe he did go as a representative of his campaign, but Goolsbee was never told to tell anyone at the embassy to ignore what Obama was saying  publicly  about getting rid of NAFTA and that it was only "political positioning". 

Someone at the embassy  got fed up both with Obama's duplicity and his lying in trying to deny it,  and leaked a copy of the actual official  minutes of the meeting to the AP which published them. And the minutes clearly showed Goolsbee telling the Canadian officials to ignore what they hear Obama say in Ohio about getting rid of NAFTA and that he has no intention of getting rid of it, that its just "political positioning". 

Goolsbee put out a statement that they all misunderstood him at the embassy,  Obama continued to deny it and the Canadian government in Ottawa tried to do damage control not wanting to be seen as doing anything to interfere with a U.S. presidential election and tried to say it was all a misunderstanding. The news media let it go in spite of Obama having been caught in a succession of lies in trying to deny it. 

But in 2010, as a result of Canada's version of the Freedom of Information Act, Canadian journalists received copies of all the emails between Ottawa and the embassy in Chicago confirming what took place, confirming the meeting with Goolsbee and what he said, Ottawa showing concern for doing damage control while some at the embassy in Chicago were delighted with the leak  that exposed Obama was lying and his character, saying things like " good show".

While the American  news media let Obama off the hook for a variety of reasons and didnt make it a campaign or a character issue, including a fear of being accused of racism by attacking the first legitimate black candidate for president, Obama's callous lie is easily confirmed because his promise to get rid of NAFTA during his 2008 campaign in Ohio is a matter of public record and the fact that he never did  proves the lie. 

How many people in Ohio remember it is debatable. And the news media will never bring it up.  But since this is the first primary vote in Ohio since Obama was caught lying and Clinton's support of NAFTA is still a campaign issue, its an open question as to whether Ohio Democrats will take their wrath out on Clinton both for her own past support of NAFTA and that Clinton now supports everything Obama has done as the president who lied to them. 

And with Bernie Sanders having opposed NAFTA from the beginning, Ohio Democrats now have a chance for a little pay back.  If they have a long memory. Or if Sanders jogs their memory.