Hoffa: Obama adviser should speak up on Canada meeting

April 8th, 2008, posted by CindySnyder

From our friend Josh Drobnyk at the Pennsylvania Avenue Blog comes a little news of an Obama conference call with new questions about the elephant in Senator Obama’s room:

Teamsters president James Hoffa, speaking in a conference call today with reporters, said that the Barack Obama adviser who met with Canadian officials in February should “clarify whatever happened” in the discussion over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Startling? Only because Hoffa is an Obama supporter.

In the wake of Mark Penn’s ouster as chief strategist of the Hillary Clinton campaign, Hoffa was asked whether the Obama campaign had done enough to distance itself from Austan Goolsbee, the Obama adviser who allegedly told Canadian officials that the senator did not really plan to renegotiate NAFTA, as he had pledged earlier.

“I think that he should make a statement,” Hoffa said in a call from Scranton. “I think that he basically should come up and say what he believes and what he believes he is going to be advising Barack Obama about and Barack Obama should do the same thing. End this mystery about what happened. I think he should come out and say it.”

He added: “I don’t think he is going to distance himself, but he should certainly clarify whatever happened in that meeting.”
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issue has already been cleared up

On April 8th, 2008 Anonymous said:

Hoffa released a new statement. He and his union have re-endorsed Obama’s NAFTA position.

Hoffa later issued a statement saying his confusion is all cleared up.

“To clear up any misunderstanding about my statements, the Obama campaign and Austan Goolsbee have already clarified Professor Goolsbee’s meeting with representatives from the Canadian government, and as confirmed by the Canadian government, Sen. Obama’s position on NAFTA has not changed,” he said. “As I said on a conference call with reporters earlier today, Sen. Clinton has a credibility problem with the working men and women across this country on the issue of trade. This problem is only underscored by Mark Penn’s continued role in her campaign.”

Hoffa first said on the earlier conference call that Obama should “make a complete — you know, end this mystery about what happened and I think he should come out and say it … he should certainly clarify whatever happened in that meeting.”

Steve Hildebrand, deputy Obama campaign manager, said he didn’t think Hoffa was initially aware that the campaign had “clarified” what happened. [...]

Both Canadian and Obama campaign officials disputed the account offered by CTV that Obama’s adviser was trying to draw a distinction between his public and private views on NAFTA.

The NAFTA Lies

On April 12th, 2008 Anonymous said:

The following are links to 2 videos that ought to clear up the whole Ohio Nafta lie. They don’t take long to view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOLEK2lr3CM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgxxWhzdhv0&eurl=ht…

Lies about NAFTA, lies about Colombia, they just keep coming. Vote for the good of America – not the Clintons.

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