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Many believe that in addition to all the domestic, economic and diplomatic disasters facing the next US President, there could well be an added disaster of the Bird Flu pandemic looming just over the horizon.
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So we have been taking a look at the candidates for the job of the President of America and the way we all feel about them during the election process.
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It was last week, when that dreaded 3AM (BIG PROBLEM) call came to the phone sitting on Barack Obama’s desk.
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The time of the call may not have been exactly 3 AM, but that is not the point here.
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Barack Obama was asked about a report that a senior official had given back-channel reassurances to Canada soft-pedaling Mr. Obama’s tough talk on Nafta.
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CTV, a Canadian television network, had reported that an Obama official had called the Canadian ambassador in Washington to play down the significance of Mr. Obama’s criticism of Nafta.
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There was was a firm reaction from Obama, as befits a Commander-In-Chief-in-Waiting.
With his usual look of sincerity and absolute honesty, he denied that any such conversation had taken place.
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“It did not happen.” He said.
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When WKYC-TV in Ohio asked Mr. Obama about the CTV report, he said: “I don’t have to clarify it. The Canadian Embassy already clarified it by saying the story was not true. And our office has said the story was not. And so I think it’s important for viewers to understand that it was not true.” When pressed, he said, “It did not happen.”
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Obama’s campaign mobilized as well to strongly refute the above mentioned report of any back-channel reassurances to Canada.
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“At no point did anyone in our campaign convey to anyone that there had been any backing away from Obama’s position on Nafta,” a campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, said Monday.
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That is of course, how a strong Comander-In-Chief-in-Waiting and his campaign should act, immediately and decisively.
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The only thing is, that the denials by Obama and his campaign were er… less than the truth.
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On Monday,a memorandum surfaced, obtained by The Associated Press, showing that Austan D. Goolsbee, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago who is Mr. Obama’s senior economic policy adviser, met officials last month at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.
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According to the writer of the memorandum, Joseph De Mora, a political and economic affairs consular officer, Professor Goolsbee assured them that Mr. Obama’s protectionist stand on the trail was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy.”
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It also said the professor had assured the Canadians that Mr. Obama’s language “should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”
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So that was how Senator Barack Obama, the Commander-In-Chief-in-Waiting responded to his first Big Problem “3 AM” call.
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Source: The New York Times
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