It’s one thing when someone’s repeating things that he may or may not know is inaccurate when it comes to Hillary’s record on NAFTA. I refrained from posting on all this before because I gave Senator Obama the benefit of the doubt - maybe he just didn’t know he’d gotten it wrong.
But folks have been pointing out the error if his ways for a week or more now and he’s still making false claims about Hillary’s record – in fact he did it again today. It’s no longer a mis-read or a mistake – now he’s just flat out lying and I’m calling bullshit on his lies.
This isn’t change we can rely on – it’s more of the same bullshit and Chicago smack-down politics.
As I’ve pointed out on many occasions, states in the rust belt are hurting. Plants are shutting down and folks are out of work in Michigan and Ohio, so BO knows NAFTA’a a hot button issue back in the Midwest. He’s using fear and lies to turn voters against Hillary in his stump speeches, and in flyers that he’s sending to their homes. From today’s Washington Post...
CINCINNATI -- Hillary Rodham Clinton angrily accused her Democratic rival Saturday of deliberately misrepresenting her positions on NAFTA and health care in mass mailings to voters, adding, "Shame on you, Barack Obama."
Clutching two of Obama campaign mailings in her hand for emphasis, the former first lady said, "enough with the speeches and the big rallies and then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove's playbook."
She said by his actions, Obama was giving "aid and comfort to the very special interests and their allies in the Republican Party who are against doing what we want to do for America."
"Meet me in Ohio," she said. "Let's have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign." The two are scheduled to debate Tuesday in Cleveland.
In her criticism of Obama, she asked, "Since when do Democrats attack one another on universal health care?"
(For those who may have missed it, loads of people have called BO out on stopping short of truly universal health careherehere, here, and here. Ok back to the Washington Post article...)
The second mailing, on the North American Free Trade Agreement, quotes a 2006 Newsday article suggesting Clinton believed the agreement had been a "boon" to the economy. NAFTA and other trade agreements are extremely unpopular in Ohio, which has suffered an exodus of blue-collar jobs to other countries in part due to such agreements.
"I am fighting to change NAFTA," she insisted. "Neither of us were in the Senate when NAFTA passed. Neither voted one way or the other."
Clinton said Newsday had corrected the record about her views on the agreement. Indeed, the paper published a blog item earlier this month saying Obama's use of the word "boon" was unfair.
"Obama's use of the citation in this way does strike us as misleading," the paper said. "The quote marks make it look as if Hillary said "boon," not us. It's an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try to win an office."
In the fierce fight for votes here in Ohio, where NAFTA is not popular among many blue collar Democrats, Obama has repeatedly attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for the trade deal pushed by President Bill Clinton and passed in Congress in November 1993.
"Yesterday [Saturday], [Clinton] said NAFTA was 'negotiated' by the first President Bush, not by her husband," Obama said today. "But let's be clear: It was her husband who got NAFTA passed. In her own book, Sen. Clinton called NAFTA one of Bill's successes."
Obama also relayed to the small crowd at the National Gypsum plant a number of quotes from Clinton he said indicated she had praised the trade agreement -- including one from 2004, when she allegedly said, "I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America."
Said Obama, "One million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio. And yet, 10 years after NAFTA passed, Sen. Clinton said it was good for America. Well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America -- and I never have."
Obama Continues To Mislead on Hillary and NAFTA 2/24/2008 1:54:42 PM
"Senator Obama’s insistence on repeating attacks that have been demonstrated to be false by independent entities proves once and for all that his speeches about the new politics are just words. That’s not change you can believe in."
—Clinton spokesman Phil Singer
Today, Sen. Obama said the following:
And yesterday, Senator Clinton also said I’m wrong to point out that she once supported NAFTA. But the fact is, she was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for President.
This is false. Hillary criticized Sen. Obama for sending out a mailer that claimed she said NAFTA was a "boon to the economy" when she never did. Today, the University of Pennsylvania's FactCheck.org concluded "We do judge that the Obama campaign is wrong to quote Clinton as using words she never uttered, and it has produced little evidence that she ever had strong praise of any sort for NAFTA's economic benefits."
Also, Hillary has been critical of NAFTA long before she started running for President. For example, here's Hillary in March 2000:
What happened to NAFTA I think was we inherited an agreement that we didn’t get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion. I think the NAFTA agreement was flawed. The problem is we have to go back and figure out how we are going to fix that. [Working Families Party, 3/26/00]
Sen. Obama touts his consistent opposition to NAFTA. But speaking in Illinois in 2004 Obama said the United States "benefited enormously" from exports under NAFTA and talked about the need to continue to pursue trade agreement like NAFTA that support "a system of free trade in this nation that allows us to move our products overseas."
(Please see above link for hyper links to sources)
Hillary’s setting the record straight with two new ads in Ohio – people need to know the truth about Hillary and NAFTA and these ads will go a long way in getting that information out...
Proud – with Senator John Glenn
And Level
Help her get these ads up on the air in Ohio. Dig deep – send what you can. Don’t let these lies stand unchallenged.
Ok I wasn't going to include this but some of the comments below have prompted me to include the following. Read it and weep guys...
Newspapers Reported Obama's Support of NAFTA, Desire To Pursue Similar Agreements
2/16/2008 3:36:37 PM
Associated Press: Obama said the United States should ‘pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.' "Obama said the United State should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement." [AP, 9/8/04]
Decatur Herald & Review: 'Obama said the United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA.' "While some people believe NAFTA has been good for U.S. farmers, the trade results could have been better, Keyes said. NAFTA negotiators said the United States might lose manufacturing jobs but would become a service economy, but now those service jobs also are being exported, he said. Obama said the United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA. He said, at the same time, there must be recognition that the global economy has shifted, and the United States is no longer the dominant economy. 'We have competition in world trade,' Obama said. 'When China devalues its currency 40 percent, we need to bring a complaint before the WTO just as other nations complain about us. If we are to be competitive over the long term, we need free trade but also fair trade." [Decatur Herald & Review, 9/9/04]
