I have a new story up on NAFTAGate, which has emerged as the first scandal of the Obama campaign. (With the unreliable statements coming out of the campaign, NAFTAGate has jumped past the slow-starting Rezko case.) What we know so far:

After talking with people knowledgeable about these events, it’s possible to come to a few early conclusion. One, there was a meeting. Two, the [Canadian government] memo was a good-faith effort to record what went on at that meeting. Three, the conversation did touch on NAFTA. Four, the Canadian government’s statement was a carefully worded, diplomatic message that did not shed any light on whether the key accusation against the Obama campaign — that it privately hedged its position on NAFTA and then misled the public about it — is true. And five, the Canadian statement did say outright that Goolsbee was contacted because he was involved in the Obama campaign, not — as Plouffe claimed — because he was a university professor.
So it’s not likely that the story will go away, given the Obama campaign’s inaccurate and misleading statements about it and the Clinton campaign’s interest in keeping the controversy alive. The only question is whether it will do Obama any significant damage and Clinton any significant benefit.