Spin Cycle

After a Saturday Night Live parody, a complaint by Hillary Clinton at the final debate about press bias, and listings of "unanswered questions" by spokesman Howard Wolfson, there are signs that the Clinton camp is getting its wish: More critical coverage of Obama.

In fact, on the eve of the Ohio and Texas primaries, two stories -- Obama's relationship with Tony Rezko, who is about to go on trial for corruption, and the story about comments made by an Obama advisor to a Canadian official about the sincerity of his political positions on NAFTA -- seem to be gaining velocity.

On Rezko: We still haven't seen a story that changes the narrative, or suggests any wrongdoing by Obama. But we've seen plenty of re-coverage of the real estate deal and the political donations, including a NYT "questions linger" story on Sunday and a "questions remain" essay at TPM, a popular liberal website. Just the line Howard Wolfson was pushing last week.

Also: A mini-tempest about Obama advisor David Axelrod's claim that Obama has "talked to reporters" investigating Rezko. Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times talks to reporters, who say he's never spoken to them -- just answered written questions.

On NAFTA: NAFTA was supposed to be the tip of the Obama spear in Ohio, because Hillary says she always opposed it but made a whole lot of documented comments (including on video) saying she backed it over the past 14 years. But now, the alleged statement of Obama advisor Austan Goolsbee has become the story of the day. A Canadian memo saying Goolsbee said Obama's anti-NAFTA stance was "political positioning" puts him on the defensive just as Ohio votes.

Clinton says: "I don’t think people should come to Ohio and tell the people of Ohio one thing and then have your campaign tell a foreign government something else behind closed doors." Obama blasts back here: “This notion that Senator Clinton is peddling that somehow there was contradictions and winks and nods. What’s not disputed is that she and her husband championed NAFTA.”

Goolsbee says the Canadians misquoted him. The Canadians back off in a statement: 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, including about NAFTA."

The problem? That's exactly what the memo conveys. And even if there's ultimately no "there there" vis a vis Obama, this film of a debate over the leak in the Canadian parliament is sure to get plenty of airtime in Ohio tonight: