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At a media availability in Indianapolis, Barack Obama declined to comment on how Senator Clinton decided to deal with her former chief strategist Mark Penn — who’s been demoted to a lesser advisory position after it was revealed that he’d worked to pass a Colombian free trade agreement that she opposes.

“I think it was surprising to me that a high ranking, if not the highest ranking, member of Senator Clinton’s team would be engaged in business activities and lobbying that was directly contrary to the position Senator Clinton had taken,” he said.

But if one of his advisors had done the same thing?

“Let me put it this way: I’m not surprised that Senator Clinton found herself in an uncomfortable position as a consequence. And I know that if staff of mine were putting me in that kind of position, I would get rid of them.”

Clinton spokesman Jay Carson wonders why, if Obama would get rid of a staff member who contradicted his candidate in a meeting with a foreign government, he’s retained his chief economic advisor Austan Goolsbee.

“When Sen Obama’s top economic advisor told the Canadian government not to take his anti-NAFTA rhetoric seriously, he and his staff misleadingly denied that the meeting ever occurred, and then took absolutely no action,” Carson said in a statement. “It’s good to know he has a higher standard for our campaign than his own.”

An Obama aide calls the Penn-Goolsbee comparison “apples and oranges,” pointing out that Goolsbee was never on staff and that both the campaign and the Canadian government denied the original account by a low level government official — which had Goolsbee claiming that Obama’s anti-NAFTA rhetoric on the stump was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy.”

The battle to see which Democratic presidential contender opposes NAFTA more escalated today with a memo obtained by the AP detailing a meeting between a top adviser to Barack Obama and a Canadian diplomat in Chicago in which the adviser is said to have called his candidate’s anti-NAFTA stance “political positioning.”

The memo’s author writes that Obama’s economic adviser Austan Goolsbee “candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged” in the campaign thus far, adding that “he cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

In a press conference with reporters in Toledo, OH this morning, Clinton said “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.”

“That’s the kind of difference between talk and action that I’ve been pointing out this entire campaign,” she said. “If you come to Ohio and you both give speeches that are very critical of NAFTA and you send out misleading and false information about my position regarding NAFTA, and then we find out that your chief economic adviser has gone to a foreign government and basically done the old wink-wink, don’t pay any attention this is just political rhetoric, I think that raises serious questions.”

Obama spokesman Bill Burton accused Clinton of a “blatant distortion,” saying she’s “not telling the truth on this story” — but did not attack the veracity of the memo, instead ripping Clinton for calling NAFTA a victory in her autobiography.

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