Sen. Barack Obama has a problem. Like his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama has promised to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement after six months if it isn't renegotiated to his liking should he be elected president. The problem is that Obama has had his senior economic adviser, Austin Goolsbee, telling the Canadian government that Obama's promise is an empty one.

On Wednesday, CTV reported that a senior member of Obama's campaign called the Canadian government within the last month -- saying that when Senator Obama talks about opting out of the free trade deal, the Canadian government shouldn't worry. The operative said it was just campaign rhetoric not to be taken seriously.

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Sources at the highest levels of the Canadian government -- who first told CTV that a call was made from the Obama camp -- have reconfirmed their position.

This isn't just bad news for Mr. New Politics of Hope and Audacity, if the media starts hammering him on this (something it may choose to pass on for the usual reasons), then this could strip him of some serious credibility. Of course, according to the CTV article, Clinton has done much the same thing, so she's unlikely to benefit from this either.

For some more links and excerpts, check out this Hot Air post.

On a related note: Does it strike anyone else as completely insane that two Democrats claiming to want to repair the damage that the Bush administration has done between the U.S. and its allies promise to unilaterally dump treaty with our two closest neighbors? The screams from the left when Bush pulled the U.S. out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty were blistering -- and that was a treaty with a nation that no longer exists. Last I checked, Mexico and Canada are still there.