Comments on: Canada’s President

By: corvus

corvus — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:41:09 +0000

When George Bush was running for office he referred to a former Canadian prime minister as Jean poutine and it was ignored by the American press. On the other hand Obama’s gaff is being kept alive by the right leaning press and Clinton supporters for the obvious reasons.

By: mfrance00

mfrance00 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:02:40 +0000

I remember that W did not know which was the traditionally neutral country, Switzerland or Sweden. This was early in his administration. He, like Obama currently, could have used more foreign policy experience.

By: casualobserver

casualobserver — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:46:00 +0000

Obama’s gaffe is minor, but why stop free trade with Canada? We obviously make use of their oil exports and its not like US manufacturers are outsourcing jobs to Winnipeg. What’s the beef with the hosers, ey?

By: lurxst

lurxst — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:21:36 +0000

I can’t believe he doesn’t know Canada’s leader is Supreme High Potentate.

By: Robert Bell

Robert Bell — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:15:56 +0000

The Jean Poutine story, for reference.

By: casualobserver

casualobserver — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:12:40 +0000

Now there’s an ad hominem for ‘ya…….albeit only in good fun!

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:39:28 +0000

How many Democratic voters know such facts, anyway?

By: C Stanley

C Stanley — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:32:59 +0000

I honestly can’t get too worked up about this. I do think there’s a difference in the way people either excuse or condemn the “gaffes” of candidates, but I think it’s inevitable for bias to occur in the way we view these things. And really- Bush was much worse when it came to mangling words, forgetting leaders’ names, etc, so one slip up like this from Obama is not a big deal. I think if we’re going to hold candidates to the standard of never having verbal slip ups, we really are nitpicking. So instead of having EQUAL criticism of candidates from both parties on this type of thing, I’d rather see a bit more leniency toward both sides.

By: dan

dan — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:32:49 +0000

David Frum must have forgotten that his previous boss flunked a similar question while running for president in 2000 and managed to survive just fine.

qft.

By: Mikef

Mikef — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:28:39 +0000

David Frum must have forgotten that his previous boss flunked a similar question while running for president in 2000 and managed to survive just fine.

By: phin

phin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:15:49 +0000

Well, I guess I should be offended as a Canadian…oh well!

That said, I think you’re right. If it had been a Republican, we wouldn’t hear the end of it, though I doubt the damage would be so bad. It didn’t hurt Bush in 2000, although foreign policy was not as a big a priority as it most likely will be in ‘08.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:53:25 +0000

That’s some serious nitpicking which ignores the larger policy issue at hand. I know you probably don’t want to talk about NAFTA because it’s a much more difficult subject, but it’d probably be more useful.

Welcome back Michael