by Andrew Malcolm
Hidden deep within the transcript of the other night's Democratic debate before some 15,000 union members in Chicago's Soldier Field was yet another little-noticed and embarrassing error by Barack Obama.
His party opponents, especially frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton, have been on his case for the last couple of weeks, suggesting he is too naive and inexperienced to become commander in chief after a state legislative job and barely two years in the U.S. Senate. Obama in one debate said he would indeed meet with some of the world's dictators in his first year as president without preconditions as part of his "new page" diplomacy.
Then in a major foreign policy speech designed to enhance his credibility as a potential leader he suggested he might unilaterally bomb the U.S. ally and nuclear power Pakistan if that country's president was insufficently on the program about chasing Al Qaeda leaders. Then Obama ruled out the use of nuclear weapons, which Clinton suggested presidents should never do.
In the Chicago gathering before an Obama-friendly hometown crowd, the subject turned to trade in general and the North American Free Trade Agreement in particular, which bothers union members fearing job losses. Obama said upon becoming president, "I would immediately call the president of Mexico, the president of Canada, to try to amend NAFTA, because I think that we can get labor agreements in that agreement right now."
Problem is, as some Harvard graduates might know, our next-door neighbor Canada doesn't have a president. For more than 140 years now it has had a parliamentary system and ...
...the top political leader is the prime minister, who is the head of the controlling party in Parliament.
Then last Friday in Iowa Mitt Romney was asked by a German reporter what he thought of Germany. "President Merkel is wonderful, and will do great things for her country and for the world," he replied. Oops, Angela Merkel is Germany's chancellor, not president.
The gaffes recall a 1999 interview of candidate George W. Bush by a Boston TV reporter who suddenly asked him to name the head of Pakistan. Bush didn't know and the mistake was cited for weeks as proof of his inexperience in foreign affairs; it was called a lack of gravitas at the time. (Quick, what is the name of Canada's prime minister?**)
In fact, that concern was a major reason for Bush choosing Dick Cheney with his long Washington experience as running mate; Cheney provided instant gravitas. And in the post-9/11 world, Bush has come to know Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf very well.
Canadians are more than familiar with American ignorance and indifference about their country as a peaceful neighbor. Obama would do well to get a staff briefing on the country and its complex economic, cultural and political links to the U.S., ties that actually form the largest bilateral economic relationship in the world. More than $1 billion a day passes across the border.
In fact, despite all the talk and friction over American trade with Asian countries, there's more trade flowing just across the single Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, than the total that goes between the United States and Japan. Bush will visit Montebello, Quebec, Aug. 20-21 for a North American summit.
(Canada's prime minister, by the way, is Stephen Harper of the new Conservative Party, who formed a minority government in February 2006 after running on a platform that included closer ties to the U.S. than the previous 12 years of Liberal governments. Bush is going to visit him next week, along with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.)
From Top of the Ticket, by Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Co. newspaper.
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Comments
Little noticed?????
This latest Obama gaffe has been known and in other city's newspapers for almost a week.
In fact, I posted about it on the Swamp several days ago.
Obama's gaffe wasn't "little reported" so much as it was swept under the rug by his friends at the Swamp.
Posted by: Bruce | August 13, 2007 5:52 PM
Dubya & Rove are geniuses. Photo-ops of the family fishing in Kennebunkport. Rove's cashing in er, retiring.
All these little side shows while...
....back in Iraq.
Our troops bake in the 130 degree heat while the Iraqi Government takes a vacation.
Where's the Iraqi Government's political solution to their civil war?
The surge swelters on...
Posted by: Doug Zook | August 13, 2007 6:00 PM
"Then last Friday in Iowa Mitt Romney was asked by a German reporter what he thought of Germany. "President Merkel is wonderful, and will do great things for her country and for the world," he replied. Oops, Angela Merkel is Germany's chancellor, not president."
Well, I guess Mitt is naive also
Posted by: Anonymous | August 13, 2007 6:26 PM
As the competitions between presidential candidates increase and tense up, the candidates need to be reminded of the critical issues that still trouble our society today. Issue such as global poverty needs to be address by our candidates to each and to the general public. As one of the nation that has pledge to fulfill the goals of Millennium Development Project, whose goal is the elimination of world hunger and poverty, the Bush Administration has not shown any substantial action to bring this fundamental problem to a stop. According to the Borgen Project, dedicated to fighting and ending Poverty around the world, only $19 billion dollars are needed annually to stop world wide poverty, hunger and malnutrition. However, more than $340 billion dollars has been poured into this “war on terror.” And each year, our country has a military budge of $522 billion dollars. It's time for a new leader who will be addressing an issue that affects 1.2 billion people everyday worldwide.
Posted by: Mstessyrue | August 13, 2007 7:07 PM
Time for a Chicago newspaper rep to unexpectedly ask Obama the names of the leaders of Albania, Bulgaria, Afghanistan and Uzbechestan to test his knowledge of foreign affairs. Sure. That will happen on the day elephants fly. At the same time, Hillary knows the leaders of Communist China. She still has their names on the campaign contribution checks from '96.
Posted by: Kinzie | August 13, 2007 7:22 PM
Silly...Diplomatically a chancellor/PM is of no consequential difference. It's the intent of the statement(s) that matters most. In the midst of an emotional impromptu speech or response to a reporter, this type of low-level "gaffe" is only worth printing if you're trying hard to disbarage a candidate. And the press is working OT to breakdown the Obama brand they singlehandely built. cHillary is clearly the media's candidate; Obama has quite a "Hill" to climb! Hang in there O-man.
Posted by: Rus Styles | August 13, 2007 8:22 PM
The very fact that the rest of the candidates are so vicious to Obama shows how much he exposes their weaknesses. We have had 6 years of decline in foreign affairs. The current approach is a dismal failure. We've made a dramatic mess in the Middle East and alienated many of our closest allies. Hillary voted for the war, and now has backpedaled on it. Obama has never wavered and he brings new ideas to the table - for this, he is crucified. Hillary wants to carry on business as usual with the under the table payoffs, shady deals, and broken pro mises and she's rewarded for it. Sigh...
Posted by: Jon C. | August 13, 2007 8:58 PM
My dad took me to see "the next president of the United States" when I was 4 years old back in 1960 at a rally in the old Shopper's World parking lot. Seeing as JFK won I always assumed we saw him when I should have known better. My dad's always been a Repub, and a few years ago he told me it was Nixon I was squinting to see from my perch on his shoulders way back when. This is a guy who listened to Morton Downey Jr. before there was a Rush Limbaugh.
Still red as Texas he admitted he voted for Obama in 2004 against the clearly insane Alan Keyes. The only time I've ever heard him admit he voted for a Dem. I don't doubt it's the only time he ever has. But Keyes was as black as Obama. If he'd been white I doubt it would have mattered. Keyes is just nuts and even my Repub congresswoman Judy Biggert all but admitted she voted for Obama. Not much of a test there.
My dad stuck with Nixon til the bitter end. We used to have shouting matches about the imperial presidency on my part and how the liberal media was just out to get him as his response. He still thinks Nixon got a raw deal.
In the 1980s he went on vacation to Cal. and came back with a pic of him standing next to one of those cardboard cutouts of Reagan in a cowboy hat, arm draped over St. Ronnie's shoulder, big you know what eatin grin on his face.
He's getting up there in years, had a stroke a few years ago and can't talk. I moved back home after my mom died last year to take care of him. Our days of political screaming matches are long gone. He still reads the Trib and watches the news. I still rant about Bush on the worst days and talk up Obama when I get the chance but I'm the only one keeping the conversation going these days. He just shakes his head.
Today he came into my office with the mail. There was a Obama fundraising letter among the various credit card offers and other flotsam. He
usually just drops the stuff on my desk and walks away. But today he was agitated, kept pointing to the mail. I looked thru it, explained there wasn't anything urgent there. Capitol One wants to find out what's in my wallet and take it from me. No big deal.
When I got to the Obama letter he grabbed it, smiled and shook it at me. I told him I'm not sending him anymore money right now, I'm doing enough as it is and I'll send him a few dollars when I can at the end of the quarter. He shook his head and pointed his finger at his chest. Increduously I asked, "YOU want to send money to Obama? A Democrat?" He nodded vigorously, that smile on his face as big as it was that day he stood next to the lifesize photo of his hero Reagan.
I'd like to think that after all the years of cajoling, logically breaking down his arguments, trying to force him to see the error of his ways I'd won. But it's not me, I didn't do it, it was Obama.
Take my word for it. This country is ready to elect a black man, Barack Obama. And we may do it in a landslide.
We'll still get the Trib til the day my dad dies but after that? We'll be one more lost subscription for the paper. And the reason will be the way the paper treats our democracy. Read the op-ed page on a regular basis and you come away thinking voting is a mug's game. All politicians are scum.
The Trib is so cynical the ed board's major beef with Peter Roskam last year is he didn't stay bought when he collected $70,000 from his fellow lawyers and then voted for tort reform anyway.
Posted by: markg8 | August 13, 2007 10:00 PM
More comedy from "Foot in Mouth" Mitty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-njjQNN0En8
Posted by: John E | August 13, 2007 10:17 PM
Romney explaining how he got out of the Vietnam draft by going to France?
Answer: NO, he's explaining how his kids are avoiding serving in Iraq:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u09CgZ3m5_A&mode=related&search=
Posted by: John E | August 13, 2007 10:22 PM
News update not in the Trib: Monday in New Hampshire, Obomber said, referring to Afghanistan, "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." (Source: My Way News).
Another nice endorsement of our military. One thing that can be said about Obomber, he's not a loose cannon. More like a "loose pop-gun."
Posted by: Chestnut | August 13, 2007 10:23 PM
Obama's gaffe wasn't "little reported" so much as it was swept under the rug by his friends at the Swamp.
Posted by: Bruce | August 13, 2007 5:52 PM
You should hear yourself bruce, you're such a petty, whiny little man. You make conspiracy theorist look rational.
I wouldn't get your undies in a bunch over Obama's gaffe. Bush makes more fou pauxs in a week that other politicians make in a lifetime.
I'm betting in Obama's case it was a misspeak. When Bush screws up, it means he forgot his lines. But you keep doing the heavy lifting for the rnc, that's what they pay you for.
Posted by: dt | August 14, 2007 12:10 AM
Fox Noise Channel, busted for lying......again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNcV1S2H-3Q&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edailykos%2Ecom%2Fstory%2F2007%2F8%2F14%2F0213%2F46271
Posted by: John E | August 14, 2007 1:15 AM
Weird, Demented, Jobless Johnny E., are those "Fox Noise Lies" like the CBS News lie about forged National Guard memos? Or about Jayson Blair's lying articles for the NY Times? Or anything Paul Krugman writes for the NY Times? Or how Mike Barnicle's lies for the Boston Globe? CNN's lies about Gen. Westmoreland? NBC News' lies about Ford?
Getting back to the actual Swamp item, for the most part it's small potatoes that Barack called the Canadian prime minister president or Romney calling the German chancellor president. But I am waiting for the day when a reporter will ask Barack who are the leaders of South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Georgia (and for those Uneducated Loony Lefters I am referring to the country not the state), Chili and Morocco. Then I want to see questions to Obama about the price of milk, loaf of bread, can of Campbell's Chunky Soup, jar of baby food and what Patrick Leaky Leahy pays for his Depends.
Posted by: John D | August 14, 2007 8:39 AM
But I am waiting for the day when a reporter will ask Barack who are the leaders of South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Georgia (and for those Uneducated Loony Lefters I am referring to the country not the state), Chili and Morocco.
Posted by: John D | August 14, 2007 8:39 AM
Johnny Torture is that Chili with beans or without?
Talk about uneducated!
Posted by: Tony | August 14, 2007 9:18 AM
[quote]
Or anything Paul Krugman writes for the NY Times?
Posted by: John D | August 14, 2007 8:39 AM
[/quote]
Well John D, since you are now ON RECORD as CLAIMING Paul Krugman has LIED about something in his columns, perhaps you can list these lies and PROVIDE LINKS to the columns, so that we can know about them - just like you.
Or are you just making up stuff again because you don't like what he writes about?
Posted by: BC | August 14, 2007 10:26 AM
markg8,
That was a great story. And it is a great anecdote for the kind of grass roots support Obama has been generating. I will be the first to admit that he's a bit green behind the ears. But the fact is, on these supposed "gaffes" he's been making, he's been correct on the policy everytime. People just aren't used to hearing someone speak who doesn't only tell them exactly what they want to hear.
As for this post about knowing foreign leader's position: its not a big deal for Romney or Obama. Romney should know about the Chancellor of Germany and Obama should know the Prime Minister of Canada.
Posted by: Bryan | August 14, 2007 11:04 AM
Johnny con carne,
I see where Krugman was wrong about Bush's "house of cards" economy, the housing bubble, and the sub-prime mess. This from two years ago:
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2005/08/krugman-housing-bubble-will-burst.html
Posted by: dt | August 14, 2007 2:25 PM
dt, the fall of the housing market had been forecasted for more than a year. There was no way it could continue the pace it had been doing from late 1990s until 2005.
I wonder, did Paul Krugman predict the stock market crash under Bill Clinton in 2000?
BC and dt, Paul Krugman lies about a lot. But since I work for a living and you folks do not, you do the googling to find out about his lies. I'll help you out some, google paul krugman's lies and you'll get a smorgasbord of stuff. Even his own newspaper discredits him, you will find.
Have fun and MAYBE you folks will learn, but I highly doubt that.
Posted by: John D | August 14, 2007 3:03 PM
Thanks Bryan.
Posted by: markg8 | August 14, 2007 3:27 PM
It may not matter to American voters what the real title of the various world leaders is, but it matters to Canadians whether the president thinks we are a republic or not!
Considering the amount of trade between our countries, and the various difficulties we have with NAFTA, it might be the polite thing to do to bone up a bit... Although you'd think they'd already know!
Anyway, nice to see my country ranked with Georgia and Albania in terms of knowing who the political leaders are!!
Posted by: Runway08 | August 14, 2007 8:58 PM