Breaking: More Clinton Hypocrisy on NAFTA

We all remember how just as the polls in Ohio were shifting Obama's way, the Clinton campaign dropped a bomb shell and accused Obama's campaign of giving a wink-wink to the Canadians on NAFTA. That was credited as one of the reasons for her big victory in Ohio.

Today, the weekend before the Pennsylvania primary, it appears there's a new wrinkle. According to ABC's blog, James Blanchard, former Governor of Michigan, a Michigan state co-chair of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign and one of her major "HillRaiser" fundraisers and a former US Ambassador to Canada, told the Canadians not to worry about Clinton's pledge to renegotiate NAFTA if elected.

Hillary Clinton has pledged to voters that she will force Canada to re-negotiate the deal or the US will opt out of it.

"I've said that I will renegotiate NAFTA, so obviously we'd have to say to Canada and Mexico that that's exactly what we're going to do," Clinton said during a recent debate. "We will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it.”

But Blanchard seemed to pooh-pooh that bold statement, telling attendees that Democrats are more concerned about China and Mexico than they are Canada.

''Their concern is job loss or unfairness in dealing with countries that have low wage and labor standards and low environmental standards,'' Blanchard said, according to the Canadian Press. ''I have not seen anything that would constitute a threat to trade with Canada."

Now, it should be noted that Blanchard is one of Clinton's campaign co-chairs (i.e. a big fundraiser), and not on the campaign payroll, so he does not officially speak for the Clinton campaign. But neither was Austin Gooldsbee, who is an academic who has advised the Obama campaign on policy. This, combined with Mark Penn's lobbying on behalf of the Colombia treaty, is yet another reason to doubt the sincerity of her pledge to renegotiate NAFTA, and if Gooldsbee's meeting with the Canadians was an issue, then I think this is more than fair.

If you agree that this is fair game, please help disseminate it and send it to PA and national news outlets. I know we are outraged about Clinton dissing MoveOn, but I think this might be more of an issue for the average PA voter than Clinton's attack on party activists.

UPDATE: To be fair, I just reread the article and it might not be as damning as I had originally thought. Blanchard said that the Canadians should not worry because most of the concerns involved Mexico. But it seems like he still implied that Clinton should not be taken too seriously with her rhetoric on NAFTA:

The story said that Blanchard this week "played down her antipathy toward the free-trade deal, saying she has visited Canada many times and understands the country well."