Rush Limbaugh, who has already said that Barack Obama looked like Osama bin Laden in a picture in which the Democratic presidential candidate was wearing Somali clothing, added on "The O'Reilly Factor" this week that Obama was "looking like [Osama bin Laden's chief collaborator] Ayman [al-]Zawahiri."
On a related note, I heard Limbaugh ranting today about how Obama is worse than Bill Clinton based on the overblown dispute over what an adviser allegedly told a Canadian diplomat:
[D]o you think Obama's faithful give a rat's rear end about the Tony Rezko deal and how Obama bought his house? You know, it strikes me... This is the kind of thing that we tried with the Clintons back in 1992, all of the character defects, the lying. It didn't matter. It really didn't matter. People were just so (sigh). People didn't care about it. When we tried pointing out the character flaws of Clinton, it just didn't matter. Now, this stuff with Obama is far more serious, and I'm not minimizing how bad the Clinton stuff was, but this is worse. This guy is actually incompetent. He is clueless. He has a Clinton problem in that he will just change a story on a dime, and make it sound like everybody else heard him wrong the first time.
It'll take better material than that for Rush to turn Obama into Michael Dukakis.
Is the NAFTA issue really overblown? Brendan's link says it is. But, when you read the article, the author's evaluation is based, not on facts, but only a guess that the Canadian memo was inaccurate.
The Obama campaign denied the memo, but AFAIK they didn't put out their version of what was said in that meeting. That's a striking omission IMHO.
Ultimatedly, the importance of the issue will be its political impact. On this score, the New York Times wrote, "Nevertheless, the controversy, which drew fierce attacks from Mrs. Clinton and Senator John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, put Mr. Obama’s campaign on the defensive at a crucial moment....The memorandum exposed Mr. Obama to accusations of hypocrisy on a touchstone issue."
I think this NAFTA memo will hurt Obama precisely because he has such a high reputation for integrity.
Posted by: David | March 04, 2008 at 12:26 AM
From the Canadian Embassy:
"Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008 — The Canadian Embassy and our Consulates General regularly contact those involved in all of the Presidential campaigns and, periodically, report on these contacts to interested officials. In the recent report produced by the Consulate General in Chicago, there was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA. We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.
The people of the United States are in the process of choosing a new President and are fortunate to have strong and impressive candidates from both political parties. Canada will not interfere in this electoral process. We look forward, however, to working with the choice of the American people in further building an unparalleled relationship with a close friend and partner."
http://geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/washington/menu-en.asp?lang_update=1
Posted by: Samuel Brainsample | March 04, 2008 at 09:23 AM