Audacity

I'm shocked--shocked I say--to discover POLITICS influencing a campaign for the presidency.

A memo obtained by The Associated Press suggests Obama's economic policy adviser privately told Canadian officials to look at the Democratic candidate's attack on free trade as "political positioning" rather than policy.

Obama today conceded the meeting did take place, but said the memo mischaracterized what his chief economist told the Canadians. He has yet to provide us with an explanation of just what his chief economist did say to the Canadians, or why he would even meet with them in the first place.

It should also be noted that Obama denied the meeting took place at all until the memo surfaced.

In other words: he's been caught in one big, honkin' whopper of a lie. (Let's watch the media give him a pass for it -- though, to be fair, they are paying at least *some* attention. Nothing like the conniption fits they'd be throwing if it was Hillary, but -- some attention is better than none.)

Anyway, I tend to take a dim view of any presidential candidate caught in such an incredible act of duplicity, especially one whose entire sales-pitch to the American people is that he's a different kind of politician, presumably the kind who would not spend months savaging his opponent for her (honestly, only lukewarm) support of NAFTA while quietly reassuring a foreign government not to lose too much sleep 'cause he doesn't mean a word of it.

That's audacity, all right. But it's not the audacity of hope.

My audacious (and, admittedly unrealistic) hope is that the Democrats of Texas and Ohio are paying close attention.