Obama's Credibility Gap?

First there was Watergate. Then came Irangate. Travelgate. Troopergate. And, lest we forget, Nipplegate.

So is this NAFTA-gate?

Um, not quite. Top Clinton aides Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn may have repeated the catchy neologism five times on this morning's conference call, but reports late last week of Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee privately telling Canadian consular officials in Chicago that Obama's tough talk on the North American Free Trade Agreement was mere rhetoric still don't strike me as particularly scandalous. Even the leak today of a memo describing the meeting-- the memo twisted his words, Without direct quotes, it's impossible to conclude that our neighbors to the north accurately reported what he said.

Amen.

But Obama's not out of the woods yet. If Watergate, Contragate, Monicagate and Scootergate taught us anything, it's that the cover-up often matters more than the crime. Over the past few days, the Obama camp has issued a breathless stream of denials that are now hard to square with reality. The main offense: "there had been no contact. There had been no discussions on NAFTA." Goolsbee said "I did not call these people," and Obama himself claimed that "it did not happen." (Some surrogates, including Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, were still working off the old "deny everything" talking points as last as this afternoon. See video above.) With the memo now serving as documentation that "contact" was made and "conversations" did indeed take place, it's pretty clear that such denials were a bit hasty--not to mention misinformed or even misleading.

Last week, reporters like me were willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. But after today they're sure to be more skeptical, meaning that the memo story may stay in the headlines through Tuesday's crucial vote in Ohio, where even the appearance of waffling on NAFTA could hurt the candidate's chance. And that--not the content of the meeting or the memo--is the damage that Team Obama has to deal with going forward.