Thanks for fleshing out the analysis with your own very grounded perspective.

The memo that has become a focal point in the race is the first documentation to emerge publicly out of the meeting between the Obama adviser, Austan Goolsbee, and officials with the Canadian consulate in Chicago.

The memo was written by Joseph DeMora, who works for the consulate and attended the meeting.

"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," it 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."

But Goolsbee disputed the characterization from the conservative government official.

"This thing about 'it's more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans,' that's this guy's language," Goolsbee said of DeMora. "He's not quoting me. I certainly did not use that phrase in any way."

The memo obtained by the AP was widely distributed within the Canadian government. It is more than 1,300 words and covers many topics that DeMora said were discussed in the Feb. 8 "introductory meeting" between himself, Goolsbee and the consul general in Chicago, Georges Rioux.

Tristan Landry, a spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington, said DeMora was not available for an interview Sunday. His only comment on the memo was to say that although consulate officials reach out to U.S. campaign officials to seek their views, "Canada does not in any way seek to interfere in U.S. electoral politics."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Goolsbee's visit was not as an emissary from the campaign, but as a professor from the University of Chicago. He was not authorized to share any messages from the campaign, Burton said.

Burton, who was on the call while Goolsbee described his visit to the AP, said, "It all boils down to a clumsy, inaccurate portrayal of the conversation."
More

“In Ottawa, Harper denied accusations from Layton that he was trying to influence the U.S. political process, but the NDP leader called on the Prime Minister to fire his chief of staff, Ian Brodie, alleged to have leaked the original information to CTV. "I certainly deny any allegation that this government has attempted to interfere in the American election,'' Harper said.

"The American people will make the decision as to their next president and I am confident that whoever that person is, man or woman, Democrat or Republican, that person will continue the strong alliance, friendship and partnership that we enjoy with the United States."

In Washington, the Canadian embassy, said it regretted the memo implied Obama would say one thing publicly, but give a contrary signal privately.

"There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA,'' the statement said.

"We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect."

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Clear as mud?

Idiots… Harper controls all messages and if he didn’t intend to sway the election, then he make an enormous boo boo for which he should personally apologize and not leave it to spokesman/spokeswoman speaking on his behalf! Seems Canadian politicians are clones of American politicians and you're never going to get them to admit in public they made a mistake.

Ian, I like your article and after a year and a half of life in Canada I cannot put it past Harper to have engineered that. One little quibble. Can we in the (center-) left leave Strauss alone. He was a Platonist for God's sake. He interpreted ancient texts examining issues that have everything to do with the philosopher's capacity to survive in a dangerous world. After the death of Socrates and the earlier expulsion of Protagoras from Athens (though this is a contested a possibly spurious event) this was an issue and Strauss works on that. That a number of his students, who simply took a few classes (and were not part of his closest circle) used his work, does not mean they are Straussians. At least let us use quotation marks around the term. I use the guy in aspects of my work and believe me, there is little "Straussian" in me, other than the recognition that authors will take measures to protect themselves from a censorious regime.

I, for one, do not trust the MSM or a representative of a conservative government to interpret for me the exact words of Obama's man.

Haven't we seen this kind of thing before?

Remember Al Gore's non-statement about creating the internet?

Remember Willie Horton?

Remember John Kerry's faked wounds?

Remember Howard Dean's amplified scream?

Conservatives have a long record of inventing pseudo-scandals, then making them pinball around in their evil echo chamber. Unwilling to wait for a genuinely stupid pronouncement, the MSM (and Canada's got them too) are looking for anything they can twist into one of their many fake narratives. This one stinks to high heaven of exactly that kind of bullshit.

The real question we should be asking is, WHY HAVEN'T WE HEARD AN AUDIO RECORDING? Hard for me to imagine that nobody had one handy at an important government meeting.

Until I hear an audio recording of that conversation, then I will accept Goolsbee's account of what happened rather than the version of any reporter that works for the corporate media.
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"Adapt or perish." Murphy's Law? Nope, Darwin's Guarantee.

...has an interesting post:

Back during the 2004 campaign, I did a story full of on the record quotes from Laura Tyson, one of Kerry's top economic advisors, promising that Kerry's rhetoric about trade was bullshit: [quote elided]

I got exactly zero bounce from this article even though, in my opinion, it was much more solidly grounded than a story about a memo about something someone told a diplomat at a party...

Stepping away from my bitterness, you have two candidates, both of whose economic advisory teams are full of proponents of trade deals, both of whom are now campaigning in a state where trade deals are very unpopular, both talking the trade-skeptic talk while also trying to quietly reassure other key constituencies that the Washington Consensus is a alive and well. The larger irony here is that the multilateral trade process as a whole ran aground several years ago over agricultural issues and shows no signs of reviving no matter who wins the election.

He is a Bush mini-me.

_{repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.}

In fact, the Canadian government is assisting mostly Democratic candidates. On the Canadian Taxpayers Federation website it was recently revealed that Canada's federal agency CIDA gave $18 million over four years to International Planned Parenthood, which is spending $10 million to assist pro-choice candidates in the current U.S. election. So Canadian taxpayers' cash is being used to help mainly Democratic candidates. Both the Canadian media and some in the Obama camp are up in arms over the Canadian Conservative government allegedly helping the Republicans, when in fact it is actually helping to fund the election of Democrats.

after watching him for a couple of years 'brilliant' isn't the word i'd use, more like : possessed of low cunning, without scruples, opportunistic liar ...