Obama In Over His Head

Barack Obama's foreign policy team is in disarray. Could this be a reflection of the candidate's naive and muddled vision? Not to mention anti-American and anti-Semitic. First, in case you missed it, his blame Canada bullying and double-talk:Follow up via LGF:

The Obama campaign told CTV late Thursday night that no message was passed to the Canadian government that suggests that Obama does not mean what he says about opting out of NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.

However, the Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama’s senior economic adviser — Austan Goolsbee — and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago.

Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue. On Thursday night, CTV spoke with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation with the Canadian government office in Chicago. He also said he has been told to direct any questions to the campaign headquarters.

The Campaign Spot suggests Obama is lying or has an insane, out of control adviser. (Note, Austan Goolsbee is a University of Chicago professor.) Meanwhile, down in Florida, Rep. Robert Wexler (most remembered in my mind for defending Bill on Monica pre-appearance of the blue dress) is trying to do damage control with the Jewish community on Obama's promise to meet with the terrorist and terror state head of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Is Wexler another out of control, insane adviser?

Or is Barack Obama in over his head on foreign policy--bashing and bullying allies and sucking up to our enemies, who will bash and bully him.

He's shaping up to be another Jimmy Carter. Recall it was under Carter's muddled "watch" and his crisis of confidence that the Iranians and then "student leader" Ahmadinejad stormed our embassy in Tehran and took American diplomats hostage for 444 days--until President Reagan's inauguration day, when they were released.

UPDATE: Hillary's anti-Obama red phone ad, running in Texas. (Her experience is by osmosis, but marginally better than his.) Obama's ad in response. (He cites his vote against Iraq--Barack Obama, always looking for a better war not to fight when it matters to protect us and our way of life. And he cites his "judgment". See above for more good judgment.) Back and forth on the stump yesterday. More from the NY Times with reaction from the Obama camp. Nice hit here from Hillary's team:

Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s pollster and top strategist, said the ad did not say that Mr. Obama was unqualified but rather that it gave voters a choice. “People have seen both candidates, they’ve heard their experience,” he said, adding that “voters have made judgments on this.”

Mr. Penn suggested that Mr. Obama’s speech against the Iraq war “at an anti-war rally” hardly qualified him to be commander-in-chief.

This underscores his doctrinaire leftism and his most recently revealed lapses in judgment, indicated by his shadowy campaign donors and the extremists he's befriended.

In other news, deadly bio-weapon ricin is discovered in a Vegas hotel room. It looks like no terrorist links here, but recall when we last heard about ricin. And in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's henchman Chemical Ali finally faces execution.

UPDATE: An ally of Sen. John McCain, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) urges approval of the free trade agreement with Colombia pending in Congress, making the case in the key primary state of Ohio this weekend. The Swamp:

Roskam says it is a key ally in "a region where we need friends" – and a potential boom export market for Illinois firms such as Caterpillar.

"This is a market of 44 million people," he said. "There are great export opportunities. This is a country that buys a tremendous amount of agricultural equipment."

The best argument for approving the agreement, he said, is geo-political: "We have a lot at stake to see this place flourish and do well."

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