photo credit: nl_gr

Last week news spread from Canadian Television of an Obama staffer contacting Michael Wilson Canada’s ambassador to the United States, warning him that the Senator would speak out against NAFTA but that the statements “should not be taken at face value” according to the report. Obama’s camp denied it, the ambassador denied it and John McCain attacked the Senator over it. Many saw it as a smear attempt and began questioning the reporting.

CTV later reported that the meeting took place between Obama campaign advisor Austan Goolsbee and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago. The Obama team denied that any meeting between high-ranking campaign officials and the Canadian government had taken place. From a CTV article:

On Thursday, the Canadian embassy in Washington issued a complete denial.

“At no time has any member of a presidential campaign called the Canadian ambassador or any official at the embassy to discuss NAFTA,” it said in a statement.

But on Wednesday, one of the primary sources of the story, a high-ranking member of the Canadian embassy, gave CTV more details of the call. He even provided a timeline. He has since suggested it was perhaps a miscommunication.

The denial from the embassy was followed by a denial from Senator Obama.

“The Canadian government put out a statement saying that this was just not true, so I don’t know who the sources were,” said Obama.

Sources at the highest levels of the Canadian government — who first told CTV that a call was made from the Obama camp — have reconfirmed their position.

However the Associated Press now has a copy of a memo written by Joseph DeMora, recounting a meeting between Austan Goolsbee, and officials with the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

“Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign,” the memo said. “He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I have to be honest with you and say I am always amazed when the media asks a candidate “are you planning on dropping out” BEFORE a vote is cast. Every general and Super Tuesday election I hear people on the West Coast decry the fact that vote totals come in three hours before they vote feeling it influences the election. So what does a month of asking “are you going to drop out, because we don’t expect you to win” do to a candidate? I am being serious here.

Before every primary the media has asked every candidate who wasn’t running away with the polling whether they would drop out. Now obviously no one expected Dennis Kucinich to sweep New Hampshire or Iowa or any state, but could we at least have given him the courtesy of letting the voters say “we don’t like you” before the Associated Press jumped to it?

The lunacy involved here is staggering. Time and again we’ve seen polling, including exit polling that was wrong, especially in cases where the election was close. If one candidate is three or four points within range, we don’t know that the poll is accurate until people actually turn out. Weather, world events, gaffes, any number of things can change a person’s vote the day of the election. Just because three hundred people called on landlines in a small sample show one thing, we have no idea when things are close, how the vote will actually turn. Yet, what do we have? “Are you going to drop out, are you going to drop out, are you going to drop out?” LUNACY!

photo credit: GStrader

Good morning Geeks, incase you missed it the two main Democratic candidate spent most of the weekend proving to the American people they were the best candidate to protect the nation, by continuing to attack each other like children. Democracy rules!

Meanwhile the site was down most of saturday because of a server transfer glitch, sorry. But the Election Geek did spend Sunday buying a house! WOO HOO. Well we made an offer, it was accepted and now I have to figure out just what in the world made the wife and I go crazy yesterday. Fun. Here is your morning brew.

- If you haven’t been following, Hillary Clinton launched an ad this weekend questioning Obama’s foreign policy experience by saying she is the candidate you would want working in the White House at 3 AM when a crisis strikes. Obama countered with an ad saying he would be better at 3 AM because he would have made the right call, like he did on Iraq.

Personally? If you want a candidate who is up at 3 AM I suggest you vote for a twenty-one year old.

- The Washington Post has an article under the headline “Clinton, Obama Recast Their Message on Iraq”, that is funny because to me their messages sound EXACTLY like the ones they started with over a year ago.

- Speaking of the ads, this morning Senator Obama said Clinton was getting “a little desperate” during a taped appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America. Also said no one knows for sure who will be ready in a time of crisis until it happens.

Obama also said “I don’t know where all that experience got her”. I will take a bunch of lost primaries for a $1000! Oh, he was talking about Iraq again, still a good zinger.

- The LA Times looks at the Clinton breakdown, before we know it completely broke down. Clinton’s strategist Mark Penn continued his “don’t blame me, I didn’t do it” routine.

- Media continues its commitment to parse everything Bill Richardson says and see if it is a sign he is going to support Obama.

- ABC looks “behind the scenes” of Hillary Clinton’s appearance on SNL this weekend.

- Politico looks at the mountain of missteps the McCain camp has already taken in the general election.

- Politico also has an interesting look inside of Election 2008 reporting and how a simple story can be a big headache for editors when a campaign challenges what has been written.

- All eyes are on tomorrows primaries! If you watch MSNBC then you know Hillary Clinton is a fool for not dropping out already, will be a fool for not dropping out tomorrow and will be even more of a fool because she will cling to the possibility of the nomination with claws like a monster and demand they follow the nuance of party rules!

Meanwhile, everyone has forgotten Mike Huckabee is still running. I take that back the Washington Times says he is ready to lead a revival, who knew?

Also of Note

- Clinton announced a surprise Press Conference for this morning in Toledo

photo credit: thenss

Senator Barack Obama is stepping up his rhetoric against Senator Hillary Clinton’s recent attacks. This weekend Senator Clinton challenge Obama’s experience by saying his credentials for foreign policy is based on “one speech” and revealing an ad saying she was the candidate best prepared to be in the White House at “3 A.M.” in the event of a crisis.

Remarks for Senator Barack Obama
Town Hall Meeting
Westerville, Ohio

Sunday, March 2, 2008
As Prepared for Delivery

You know, in the last few days, Senator Clinton’s been running around telling people that our entire campaign is only based on the fact that I opposed this war in Iraq from the start. She, on other hand, supposedly has all this foreign policy experience.

But when it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation – the decision to invade Iraq – Senator Clinton got it wrong. She didn’t read the National Intelligence Estimate. She didn’t first give diplomacy a chance. And to do this day, she won’t even admit that her vote was a mistake or even that it was a vote for war. And so besides that decision to invade Iraq, we’re still waiting to hear Senator Clinton tell us what foreign policy experience she actually has.

I know what our campaign is based on. Yes, it is based on the fact that we should never have authorized a war that’s cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars. But it’s also based on a lot more.

Our campaign is based on the idea that we need to turn the page on the Bush-Cheney era of diplomacy by not just talking to our friends, but our enemies. Because as John F. Kennedy said, “You should never negotiate out of fear, but you should never fear to negotiate.”

Our campaign is based on the fact that I’m the only candidate who hasn’t taken a dime of money from Washington lobbyists, and the only one who’s actually taken away the power of lobbyists by passing a law to do it.

Our campaign is based on the fact that I’m the only candidate who didn’t vote for a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt. I want to reform our bankruptcy laws to give families a second chance, and to make sure CEOs can never again dump your pension with one hand and collect their bonus with another.

Our campaign is based on my twenty years of actually bringing about change that made a difference in people’s lives – on the fact that I expanded health care for 150,000 children and parents, provided tax relief to the working poor, passed racial profiling legislation to protect equal rights, stopped wrongful executions in Illinois, and worked with Republicans in Washington to secure loose nuclear weapons from falling into terrorist hands. Our campaign is based on that.

Our campaign is based on the idea that we can put the people’s interests before the special interests; that we can stop telling the American people what they want to hear and start telling them what they need to hear; that we can have a politics in America where we stop tearing each other down and start lifting this country up. That’s what our campaign is based on, and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

Last nights Saturday Night Live was chock full of campaign coverage. First check out the shows version of the Obama vs. Clinton debate:

Next Senator Clinton gives a response:

Then long-winded but rather true recap of Barack Obama’s relationship with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson:

FINALLY a second surprise guest, Rudy Giuliani who came in to discuss his campaign.

Senator Clinton appeared alongside her doppleganger Amy Poehler tonight after a skit recapping the last MSNBC debate.

CNN is reporting rumors that Senator Clinton will be making a surprise appearance tonight on Saturday Night Live.

Days before a crucial set of primaries, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is expected to make a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight, an entertainment industry source tells CNN.

A spokesman for Saturday Night Live would not confirm the appearance, saying only, “It’s a live show, anything can happen”

Clinton did not arrive for a campaign charter flight from Dallas to Columbus, Ohio Saturday evening. The campaign would not say where she was.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama appeared on Saturday Night Live unannounced around Halloween, and GOP candidate Mike Huckabee did a bit on the show’s Weekend Update last Saturday. Clinton is also scheduled to appear on John Stewart’s “Daily Show” Monday, on the eve of voting in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Well after a day of the site being down, I am almost there in terms of getting it working. The one thing I am waiting on is for Wordpress permalinks to start working again. There is something with GoDaddy hosting, I have run into it before. You just have to turn it on and wait and eventually they start working. Don’t know why they take forever, but they do.

Sorry for all the downtime.