Vance Day's Obama in Oregon curtain raiser

Republicans smell a flip-flop and are homing in on it.

Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party Vance Day’s conference call with reporters over Obama’s impending visit to Oregon wasn’t centered on the war in Iraq or health care or tax cuts. The first topic out of the box was…. NAFTA.

Day said Obama’s economic policies and positions, specifically his ‘recent’ comments on withdrawing from NAFTA, would be devastating to Oregon’s economy.

“Just two months ago, Obama was quoted saying NAFTA isn’t good for America and never has been,” Day said. “He is shifting positions, he has little understanding of the economy.”

Obama has recently been on NAFTA-fire; a few days ago, the AP obtained a memo written after Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s senior economic advisor met with the consul general for the Canadian government. According to the memo written after the meeting, Goolsbee "candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign" but reassured Canadian Consul General Georges Rioux that Obama's NAFTA-bashing "should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."

After the AP obtained the memo, the Canadian consulate in Chicago helped smooth things over, saying that “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."

But Day went one step before memo-palooza. He referred to an AP article written in 2005, which reported that Obama believes that the “United State should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the country must be more aggressive about protecting American interests.”

Day noted that withdrawing from NAFTA would affect the manufacturing and agricultural industries in Oregon.

The Chairman also had words about Sen. John McCain’s chances in Oregon, even in the midst of the large gain in Democratic voter registration, which he attributed to temporary excitement over the Democratic primary. 

He praised McCain’s leadership and his clear stance on stands on which Obama “seems to be shifting.”

“In the long run, McCain plays well in Oregon because he is a bit of a maverick, an independent, a pioneer in Western spirit that Oregonians like,” Day said.