Hilarious.
For those of you who don’t know much about Harper, the level of contempt for this entire steaming pile of garbage is plainly evident. The smirk was great.
And this might be my naive Canadian perspective, but I didn’t think Senators were authorized to negotiate trade agreements.

kkaneff79 on March 6, 2008 at 11:10 AM

Hmmm. A liberal Canadian. How rare.

Every time I see the words “NAFTA Dance”, it reminds me of the Safety Dance. That is my cross to bear.

ReubenJCogburn on March 5, 2008 at 8:45 PM

NAFTA Dance, by the group ‘Suits Without Men.’

You’d think that someone in the press would be pushing to get Obama on the record about his real stance on this issue. “Mr. Obama, were you lying to voters or to Canada?” There, pretty simple question, really. Maybe someone in Canada wanted to know who he was lying to and assumed a leak of this nature would clear the matter up?

And I’ve got to agree with the commenters above- Obama brought this on himself. And I think, Ed, you’d be a bit more concerned about his efforts at diplomacy if Canada wasn’t such a friendly nation- and you’d want to know if his people were in contact with any other foreign powers when he has no place in engaging in such talks at this stage. Doesn’t the authority to engage foreign nations like this lie with the President?

We should be thanking Canada for this, not castigating them.

That Harper needs to apologize for this.

Right.

Todays answers from Harper fail to satisfy.

Harper?

This isn’t Harper’s fault so he has no need to apologize but I’m glad that some members of the Canadian Diplomatic Corp managed to leak this memo. Unprofessional? Yes. Needed to be done? Indeed. You may blame Canada today but you will thank us tomorrow.

We only wish you’d done the same for us with Trudeau.

I’m not blaming Canada for the Obama campaign’s lying about NAFTA. However, Harper can’t have his consulates leaking conversations to the press…

Ed Morrissey on March 5, 2008 at 8:45 PM

Poppycock, Ed. We may not know international diplomacy, but we know what we like. And right now we like the Canucks jamming something sharp up Obama’s stinker.

You are acting like diplomats have ethics. Heh.

Cordially,

Uncle J

Obama gonna create an International Embarrassment Disaster(IED) upon the United States.. Someone Save US ALL!

Ed, you say the Canadian government should act professionally. I say if Obama had acted in a statesmanlike manner, none of this would have happened.

Dusty on March 5, 2008 at 9:39 PM

Good point. Obama, imo, overplayed his hand. He is buying into his hype. Election or not, he, nor any of his minions, have the right to be trying to make or influence policy with our allies or enemies..

On a more serious note, transparency is a good thing for the public to have, no? It is for our politics (and whether it in all cases or not our system leaks like a sieve). It has for the media, they are now known for their dishonesty which is the first step in their reform.

So, why isn’t it for our normal day-to-day foreign relations, which is all that this event was? If Obama doesn’t want to embarrass the Canadian government, then maybe he shouldn’t let his advisers inform them that he is lying to the American people, which additionally burdens the Canucks with preventing it from being leaked to their own media.

I can understand Harper’s action, but the blame — the embarrassment, the damage to the campaign, the foreign influence on US politics — should be placed right where it belongs: On Barack Obama.

Ed, you say the Canadian government should act professionally. I say if Obama had acted in a statesmanlike manner, none of this would have happened.

Not the case with us though. Obama was caught being a politician in name and in deed. GASP! I hope we continue to hammer him until the convention for this…hopefully after that we won’t have to worry about him.

Go Hillary! The lesser more beatable of two evils!

I don’t think this incident will hurt Harper if Obama wins the presidency. To American liberals Canada is the afterlife (”I’m moving to Canada!”)

aengus on March 5, 2008 at 9:22 PM

ROFLMAO!

“As I read on another blog..If Obama managed to tick off a friendly nation like Canada, can you imagine what he would do with a nation like China? – Pam on March 5, 2008 at 9:18 PM”

Good question, how about Mexico?

“In the NAFTA era, a staggering 87 percent of Mexico’s imports go to the United States, while Mexicans living in the United States send home more than $8 billion annually.”

Mr. Obama?