Main Exhibits

About NAFTA-gate, is Hillary exaggerating the severity of the 'Canadian' memo?

Factcheck.org has investigated the case and this is their report:, stressing that what's in the Canadian memo is anybody's guess only. If Hillary should attempt to add more to it, then she's just being a pathological liar. The Checked Out Report: March 3, 2008 Updated: March 4, 2008 What the Obama camp said to Canada, and the voters. Summary Clinton’s spokesman says a newly surfaced memo proves that Obama's campaign issued false denials about sending a private message to Canadian officials to disregard his criticisms of NAFTA. The Obama camp says it’s all a misunderstanding, and the Canadian embassy in Washington says it regrets the whole thing. Is this “NAFTA-gate” as the Clinton campaign would like Ohio voters to believe when they vote in the March 4 primary? Or is it, as the Obama camp describes it, just a botched description by a low-level official in Canada’s Chicago office of a meeting with a senior Obama adviser? It's now clear that a Canadian news report that started this flap wasn't accurate. No evidence has surfaced to show that any Obama "staffer" telephoned the Canadian ambassador in Washington, and all concerned deny that any such conversation took place. But it is equally clear that Obama's senior economic adviser did visit Canada's consulate in Chicago on Feb. 8, and that NAFTA was one of the several topics discussed. Exactly what was said is not so clear, however. The memo says Obama's anti-NAFTA stance was described as just "political maneuvering," but the adviser says he said no such thing. The campaign says the adviser wasn't authorized to convey any message from the candidate anyway. No audio recording or verbatim transcript of the disputed conversation is available, and there’s no reason to expect that any exists. So the best we can do is to provide readers with the essential details as they have unfolded over the past several days, with links to original sources when available. On this one, you’ll have to be the judge. Analysis Here is a day-by-day account of the dispute about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have for weeks been twisting each others words, each portraying the other as favoring free trade while criticizing the trade deal in Ohio where it is unpopular. Each have nearly identical public positions, however.

Public Comments

1. Hillary won Ohio fair and square... she revealed the truth on that occult, I don't call Obama Hussein's rallies a campaign, I call them Black Sabbaths! Hillary 08!
2. It took a lot of words for you to try to excuse Obama's lies about it. Hillary didn't make this up. No. Really, She didn't.
3. Use common sense. Do you really think Hillary could get away with lying about something serious like that? She didn't lie, Obama has lied about a lot of things. Maybe you should do a 'check' on that.