Obama's Double Talk

UPDATE: Ramirez clarifies Obama's Iraq policy (cartoon) Double talk.
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Barack Obama bungles his first diplomatic venture, intended or not. The NAFTA flap has damaged relations with our close ally and neighbor to the north, Canada and called into question Obama's judgment on this and other critical issues. The Washington Post awards the Obama campaign 2 Pinocchios on the incident. WSJ:

Barack Obama says he'll revive the art of American diplomacy, which sounds nice. We're not sure how this promise squares, however, with the diplomatic incident his campaign has caused in Canada, of all unlikely places. [snip]

In Mr. Goolsbee's defense, we too have recognized a language barrier separating the U.S. and Canada, particularly when we enjoy watching NHL games on television. In their understated manner, Canadian analysts describe blows to the head as "messages" and sticks to the face as "taking liberties." So perhaps Mr. Goolsbee's obligatory nod toward the benefits of trade was interpreted in Canada as a passionate defense of free markets.

However, if the Chicago professor was in fact sending a signal that Mr. Obama does not really intend to destroy America's largest trade relationship, we can only say, "Kick save, and a beauty!"

More meat in the editorial on the proven benefits of free trade to Ohio and the US.

Barack Obama has a disturbing tendency to talk tough to our allies and dismiss our enemies as just misunderstood, in need of some of his trademark soothing oratory--if only we were nice to them (and unilaterally disarmed) they wouldn't hate us, or presumably murder our citizens. I've compared him to Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was a disaster on all fronts. Bret Stephens , WSJ:

No doubt the invasion of Iraq did spur a younger generation of jihadis to new fits of apoplexy, particularly in Europe. Yet when Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Theo Van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam, he was reacting to Mr. Van Gogh's film "Submission," which uncharitably depicts the treatment of women in Islam. Similarly, when mobs burned down the Danish embassy in Beirut, the "rage" turned on a dozen or so offending cartoons. The threshold for jihadist violence, it turns out, falls below whatever levels are set by current U.S. foreign policy to include what used to be known as free speech.

Then, too, for all the anger over Iraq, it's curious that it is Europe -- with its hostility to the Bush administration and its longstanding Palestinian sympathies -- that has borne the brunt of "third generation" terror. Mr. Sageman's explanation rests on America's habits of assimilation and the greater economic opportunities for Muslims here. But that merely suggests that one solution to third generation terror lies in more accommodative labor market and immigration policies in Europe, not U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

On the contrary, if recent experience in Iraq demonstrates anything, it's that nothing is likelier to deter future terrorists than the defeat of existing ones.

And that is something Barack Obama is not willing to do. How can you sweet talk Islamofascists who view free speech as an excuse to kill?

P.S. Nato fears over Dutch Islam film, Muslim protest at Paris book fair, Man beheads one year old in Saudi grocery store

UPDATE: Obama's foreign policy adviser did actually recommend invading a country--yes, you guessed it, another ally. LGF.

UPDATE: Trib editorial on the politics of NAFTA.

UPDATE: Byron York--Is Obama lying about NAFTAGate? And David Brooks on the Obama phenomena at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner last fall in Iowa:

But Obama sounded like a cross between a social activist and a flannel-shirted software C.E.O. — as a nonhierarchical, collaborative leader who can inspire autonomous individuals to cooperate for the sake of common concerns.

I would say he is just a new kind of demagogue--because it's all about him, and always has been.