Now he’s lying about NAFTA
By Alegre on February 24, 2008 at 9:41 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Labor, NAFTA
E-mail: HillarysBloggers@yahoo.com | I’m married with children - pro-choice, tree-huggin, Million Mom Marchn’, yellow-dog- Democrat. This is also posted at DailyKos; the comments are worth checking out.
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.
Make the jump – there’s more…
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 care here here, 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.”
From ABC’s Jake Tapper…
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.”
Hillary’s team hit back with the following in an effort to set the record straight. Take a look…
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 SingerToday, 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.
Correct he’s just a liar.
He’s an ambitious politicians who’s doing a hit job.
However, he’s running as if he isn’t an ambitious politician who would ever do a hit job.
Pretty funny…
AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Barack Obama infuriates me with his constant lies. WHAT IS WITH HIM??? Jeez, talk about saying and doing anything to win.
He senses that Ohio could be the kill shot and now nothing like truth or fairness will be allowed to stand in his way. That’s who the guy is, folks.
Did this lying sack of shit go to Harvard law school? God, I hope his reasoning in his test essays was better than this extremely weak logic — which belies all that Hillary’s biographers have said about her forceful private advice to Bill against NAFTA / she was not president, after all, but she had a mind and she knew policy, and she STOOD UP for workers. Someone explain to me HOW this is in any way a logical deconstruction!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080224/NATION/74974540/1001
Her words
Co-host Juan Gonzalez takes issue with Hillary Clinton’s statement that NAFTA has “proven its worth
http://www.democracynow.org/1996/3/7/labor_policy_under_the_clinton_administration
Someone just reminded me that Obama was a “legacy” student at Harvard since his father had gone there. Aha.
Hillary should take the help of the Machinists Union and send the Chicago Tribune article about the Maytag workers in Illinois supporting her and send it to every union household in Ohio. It is powerful because it speaks for itself.
YES!
And here is the video of the Machinists president’s POWERFUL, angry, no-quarter (!) speech:
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/02/20/machinists-union-tells-it-like-it-is/
If you haven’t watched it, watch it. It will motivate you and piss you off like you can’t believe. Obama screwed over those Maytag workers, and took money from the moneyed owners.
After you watch it and get pissed - go to Hillary’s site and donate all you can to help her put those ads up on the air.
https://contribute.hillaryclinton.com/form.html?sc=ac0&rc=E5W3
Dig deep people!
“a system of free trade in this nation that allows us to move our products overseas.”
And the Jobs with them?
Alegre:I’d like to see the full context of Obama’s statement. When I google the phrase the links are not drilling down to his original text. Any ideas?
I haven’t seen anything beyond what’s in that ABC / Jake Tapper article I linked to.
Thanks; I will keep looking let ya know what I find if anything. looking at Obama’s comments/writing when he was not under a microscope 2003-2006 can be illuminating.
Wow, I got slime all over my finger when i clicked on this over at DailyKos. That was from the commenters who are freaking crazy there. I wish Obama would be a little less obvious in pandering and lying in the Rust Belt states. We, who live in these states have our own troubles and we don’t need an ivory towered outsider coming in and spreading shit around, and trying to understand our economy and needs for the very first time in his life. Hillary isn’t an outsider, and has many supporters. It is just a competition between down to earth practical hard work and knowledge of the issues with real solutions, and an Ivory tower lofty big talking arrogant bastard. I hope to god the people in Ohio and PA won’t succumb.
So sorry, Scotch. It takes a strong stomach. They are repulsive in their ugly behavior. (Anyone, if you’re not familiar with how non-Obamadroids are treated at DailyKos, check it out — link is at the top of Alegre’s diary. And please note that Alegre’s diaries are almost invariably very positive and incredibly well-documented. This is about as negative as she ever gets. But even in her most upbeat diaries, they descend on her. It’s vicious. It’s also highly coordinated.)
If you think it’s ugly now, wait until their false hopes and manufactured reality start to crumble. It’s only starting to crack now.
Reality is the real bitch.
Come on everybody - dig deep and help Hillary put the ads on the air in Ohio.
DONATE HERE! - https://contribute.hillaryclinton.com/form.html?sc=ac0&rc=E5W3
She’s standing up for us 24/7 and has been for years. Now it’s time fo rus to stand up for her and let her know we’ve got her back.
Done. Piddling amount, but it all helps. So have several friends and relatives. Those are GREAT ads.
Shall we also talk about offshoring to India?
A brother traveled there and later found out that he was training his replacement.
CLINTON WINS “WEASEL AWARD” FOR COMMENTS ON INDIA 2005: Anti-Offshoring Advocacy Group Gave Sen. Clinton A “Weasel Award,” Citing Pro-Outsourcing Comments Clinton Made In India. The Press Trust of India wrote, “An American anti-offshoring advocacy group has awarded its first ‘Weasel Award of 2005′ to Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton for her recent remarks supporting outsourcing. The Delaware-based IT Professionals Association of America (ITPAA) representing over 1,200 IT professionals nationwide, said on its Web site that it presented this award to business and political leaders that it believes ‘betray the trust of the American people.’ Scott Kirwin, founder of the organization claimed that people were ‘tired of Democrats pretending they care about the problems facing average Americans. Senator Clinton’s actions prove they clearly do not.’ The ITPAA based its award on press reports of Hilary Clinton supporting outsourcing and assuring political and business leaders in India that the US would not attempt to save the jobs lost. ‘Outsourcing will continue. There is no way to legislate against reality. We are not in favor of putting up fences.’ Hillary had said on Feb 28 in India, according to a report by the Asia Times. Kirwin also cited her position as co-chair of the ‘Friends of India Caucus’ in the Senate, a group of senators that supports issues important to India, including outsourcing and H-1B and L-1 visas, as another reason behind the ITPAA’s decision to give the award to the prospective Democrat presidential nominee.” [Press Trust Of India, 3/5/05; Link To Weasel Award]
2/05: On India Trip, Clinton Allayed India’s Fears That Outsourcing Would End. The India Review wrote, “Senator Clinton allayed apprehensions in India that there would be a bar on outsourcing. ‘There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue,” she said. [India Review, 4/05, accessed, 6/7/07]
Cee, I was actually at a private event in Chicago when Senator Obama was trying to raise money for his Senate run from the Indian Community in which he said almost exactly the same thing as what you point out. No one faulted him for it because it is the truth, and Senator Clinton has said the same thing about outsourcing to other nations. Her position has always been that you cannot stop outsourcing, but you MUST stop giving these companies a tax break for doing so, and she has been consistent in this position all along.
The Indian Community was very fond of Senator Obama, as they are of Senator Clinton, until, of course, he released the racist and nativist Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab) memo that lost him a lot of friends in the South Asian community and a lot of goodwill.
There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue,” she said. [India Review, 4/05, accessed, 6/7/07]
And this is an untrue observation and has come to pass?
Might a kite ask for a string? (link)
Susan, if you have any inside contact with the campaign, please suggest it. I sent it to the tips email, but I have no idea if those go anywhere. I think the article captures perfectly his hypocrisy. He said he would help them, and yet, when he had the ear of Crown he said nothing. He claims he didn’t know Crown determined what happened with Maytag, just like he claims he didn’t know that Rezko was under investigation, or just like he claims he didn’t know that those 11 low-income apartment buildings in his state senate district owned by Rezko were going under.
GIVE ME A BREAK.
Also, I would love to see an investigative post on the back story behind those 11 buildings. He has said some contradictory things, I think, one time he said people in his office were aware of the buildings, one time he said they were not aware. If they were aware, he did nothing, and that is awful. If they were not aware, then he is a bad community organizer and a state senator, which is also awful.
The campaign knows. Buffenbarger spoke before Hillary at that rally. And I linked to the Chicago newspaper story in my posting of his awesome angry speech here.
A 527 should run his speech and the Maytag story. Obama has no problem using 527s! (See http://www.thepage.time.com — oh yeah.) And Obama used a 527 to skewer John Edwards in Iowa.
(I got on a call with the campaign recently, and pounded away, albeit with very pithy Qs, like the “real” journalists do. My mission was 1) to let the campaign know about hot issues they can use, and 2) to let the journalists listening in about those issues since they’re almost always droning on with baloney about the campaign strategy or the psychobabble about Bill and Hillary. That was my first time on such a call — just for those who think I’m “somebody” in the campaign / I’m just an unsolicited freelancer blogging away.)
I think we all know that fair trade is good, and it needs to be maintained in a fair way. As immigration has to be handled in a fair way. Lets not forget that business promotes immegration to drive down labor. When people in Latin American countries have not jobs, they are hungry and will do anything to feed their families.
So - some how this trade stuff has to be worked out. I believe Hillary knows where the issues of negotiation can be discussed on Day one and will address the issue immediately.
Obama will be to busy with on the job training on international affairs to have any time for this.
I can’t recall where did I get this from but it is “textual” (cut and paste)Maybe NYT ?
Obama is the first presidential candidate to officially declare
his/her support for the NAFTA expansion moving through the Congress.
Quote: OBAMA: “I believe that expanding trade and breaking down barriers
between countries is good for our economy and for our security, for American consumers and American workers.”
Indeed a 527 should run his speech and the Maytag story. Why is not happening already?
Not sure, but I am really wondering about this. CNN on their political ticker is reporting that a 527/union supporting him is set to run negative advertisements against Senator Clinton. I hope she will have the money to hit back against the ads. But the maytag story would be the PERFECT way to hit back against the ads….could the machinists union run it?
Regarding “Leadership” (or its lack of) Sen.Obama has been the chairman since 2005 of the very powerful US Senate Foreign Relations subcommitee on Europe.
Yet Sen. Obama has never even convened its subcommittee except for the confirmation of 2 ambassadorships.
Sen. Obama, it seems, hasn’t done much at all as chairman of such powerful committe on Europe. No initiatives, no ideas, no hearings…
Such committe oversees among other things NATO
(Afghanistan for example?)
His Europeans counterparts were stunned
This is a serious neglect of responsabilities.
His campaign has said he “has been busy with campaining” (since he first arrived to the US Senate in 2005 ??).
Here is an article on this:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/12/29/obama_europe/
But you can find more if you care to look. I think there was also an article in The Guardian
Great point. I also read about this and I have been wondering why this has not yet been brought up in a debate. It seems odd to me, her campaign must be aware of this. Actually, I know they are aware of this. It is so irresponsible. Do your freakin’ job in the Senate before running for Prez!
Have you ever read this article from Nov. 2006 in Harper’s magazine by Ken Silverstein? Read this
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/11/0081275
and this
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/10/sb-a-little-bit-more-on-obama-1161881683
I keep pointing out that this election will not be decided until the superdelegates vote, and that will not happen until August.
There is an old saying “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.” The Obamaniacs are infatuated with Obama, but it won’t last.
As long as Hillary doesn’t quit, she’ll have enough pledged delegates to win with the superdelegates.
There is no way that Obama can survive nearly six months of scrutiny. He has already peaked and he has nowhere left to go but down.
As people realize he is nothing but empty rhetoric and slick packaging, they will come to their senses.
By August he’ll be left with a few die-hard supporters who refuse to face reality.
I am trying to imagine how, if he get the nomination, he is going to be able to keep the fervor going through the general election. That is 9 months from now. That is a long time to hope. In what month will we see hope start to noticably rot?
There is an email (got it from the “FactHub at the top right) where you can send your tips to them. It is
tips@hillaryclinton.com
I have written them many times but I have no idea if they read these or follow up on them….
It is worth the try though.
But be careful with emailing them about 527 ads.
They are forbidden by law to coordinate any of these so you may put them into trouble if you email them about it. Rather, it might be better to find out which 527 support Sen. Clinton and contact them ASAP.
Who can help with this? Larry ?
“Ralph Nader doesn’t know what he’s talking about” Senator Obama
That is rich coming from the Senator.
Now I’m not much for Mr. Naders timing of late, but to say that he is dummy is bizarre.
I was hitchhiking as kid and got out to see across the freeway a Covair burning up…Nader was one of the first people to call for auto saftey and for getting that car off the road permenantly. errr.
I’m doing a lot of history work on this to refresh my portion of OUR COLLECTIVE AMNESIA
I just read this on the Wes Clark blog, but it is almost a universal belief if you google NAFTA:
“do they clearly understand that Bill Clinton originated the NAFTA anti-democracy policy”
This is patently false and part of why we cannot have an honest discussion about who is responsible. George Herbert Walker Bush signed a NAFTA treaty with Mexico and Canada on December 17, 1992, just more than a month before Bill Clinton was inaugurated. So, if you want to Bash Clinton for continuing this, fine, fair game. But you should also add all the Democrats who signed on, including all the house members who signed:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1993/roll575.xml
and all the democrat senators:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=103&session=1&vote=00395
I voted for Ross Perot that year explicitly because of the NAFTA agreement, so I won’t tolerate a lecture from either party about NAFTA, but don’t distort the record. NAFTA was the evolution of two trade deals that were forged in the Reagan and Bush Years. It evolved from the “North American Accord” and a trade deal we established with Canada.
I have a loyalty to accurate history over pundits and politicians. If you distort our past, then you cannot predict our future.
Among the Democrats that we don’t hear Obama criticizing are his buddy Dick Durbin who is his colleague, Carol Mosley Braun and Paul Simon who are former senators of Illinois, and countless others who thought this was the right thing to do. No, it is politically convenient to add to the well coddled RightWing attack on Hillary Clinton and others to prop oneself up as Morally Superior. How can you, or he be morally superior if you distort the record for your own political gain.
I have so many criticisms of Bill Clinton, I could weigh this blog down for months, but I cannot tolerate the distortion of history by revisionists of myopic hatred who pick and choose to fit their paradigm.
READ THIS, then retort:
http://www.fina-nafi.org/eng/integ/chronologie.asp?langue=eng&menu=integ#alena
Obama Pulls a “Rove” on NAFTA?…
Posted by D. Cupples (photo from Senate.gov ) | Lately, Barack Obama has been attacking Hillary Clinton for her alleged support of NAFTA, the trade agreement that ended up reducing blue-collar jobs in our nation. FactCheck.org indeed finds a mailer tha…
After reading around the web again, it is sickening to see so many Obama supporters who have come here and accused people of “Hating” Obama, when I defy you to find a passage where someone has said, “i hate obama” (
Is there someone here who actually thinks NAFTA is a stunning success?? What are you people debating? Fast track this, fast track that, most favored nation status this, most favored nation that. Come On. Who cares if Hillary started questioning aspects of NAFTA 10 yrs after it was enacted. She didn’t do anything. A moron could of figured out it would harm blue collar workers all the way back in 1991. A moron would know shipping good paying jobs out of the country while importing low wage workers would create strain. A moron would know you can’t just run an economy on real estate. What are you debating?
I certainly don’t. I have a passionate loyalty to History. I don’t like finding historical revisionism occuring, no matter which party or individual does it. I won’t even tolerate it from myself.
I said Obama actually supported NAFTA at one point because I was given materials that said he did have a support of NAFTA. His camp denies that he ever said this, so I double checked, and dropped it, and admitted here that I was mistaken. He did support expansion to Peru and other areas are in question, but the facts do matter. And the fact is, Bill Clinton didn’t originate this policy, he wasn’t the “Champion of NAFTA” as someone on another blog coined him. And the history shows many many Democrats sided with them.
In 1992 I voted for Ross Perot, simply because of NAFTA and the idea that he would understand the economics of America. I admit that was not my best candidate, but he was the only one of 3 candidate who dared challenge this package. He has been vindicated by history on this position.
I consider him a wingnut now, and really didn’t personally like him then. But because he told it like it was about NAFTA, I was on board.
What are we debating?
Obama is engaged in the debate on NAFTA by bringing it up. He has placed a good portion of that responsibility at the feet of his opponent improperly, and should be held to account.
Quick addendum here:
After stepping away for a second, a very specific metaphor occured to me.
When I said, you must stay focused on the greater danger….
How is focusing on Nader, when Bush is the enemy (and he is) the proper use of one’s time and effort?
Isn’t this like Bush going into Iraq when he had Bin Laden targetted in Afghanistan? He took his focus off Bin Laden in Afghanistan, and jumped towards Iraq, put all his cards there, and look what it got us, Iraq the quagmire, Afghanistan the forgotten war.
Just a thought.
I want to commend Alegre for her tenacity at DKos in the face of some vicious and often personal attacks. I have read her diaries there and was astonished at the vehemence of the comments. Alegre’s diaries have always been well sourced and positive for Sen. Clinton. She avoided going “negative” on Sen. CLinton’s opponents, focusing on their policies difference. I am so pleased that I now find her diaries here and at MYDD (I am having problems retrieving my password so I can post there, their automated system seems to not be working). Her diaries are why I voted for Sen Clinton in the NY primary.
Other than a few non-candidate diaries, I have pretty much abandoned DKos but I refuse to do a GBCW. DKos has a wide audience and addresses more than just politics. I hope that after this is all over in November that Dkos will once again be a unifying site for progressive Democrats. Markos has disappointed me but not unsurprisingly, he is a former Republican, and he is not as progressive as he claims, as is Obama.
Again, a very supportive, Thank You and keep up the great work you have done for Sen. Clinton.
[...] some folks who have become unglued as of late, the fact that she praises the pact one day and believes it to be flawed and in need of [...]
Everyone, quickly, go to the Op-Ed in the NYTimes and after reading Ms. Ferraro’s piece (about Superdelegates & FL and MI) enter a comment. There are over 300 angry and insulting comments to her for her positions from Obama supporters.
Don’t let the comments there be one-sided and so horrible against
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/opinion/25ferraro.html?hp
Hurry before they close the comments.
A senior Clinton staffer who held the highest position at the NEC and worked on the CEA at the same time is one of Obama’s chief economic advisors.
Cutler hid his work in preparing the daily economic briefings during the Clinton years by making himself visibile in “market-based solutions” for the health care this time out.
[...] See also: Alegre’s article here, “Now he’s lying about NAFTA.” [...]
Think bigger than NAFTA. Bill Clinton taught GWB everything he knows about fast track. Our current China trade policy was a Clinton invention & I don’t recall Hillary raising any fuss about it either. & waiting 16 yrs until she runs for president doesn’t count. Frankly I don’t look to Obama or McCain for much relief either. The way I see it if these power brokers didn’t go all global on us the American worker would have acheived alot more economic parity & none of them really want that, they prefur redistribution schemes, so hence the playing field always has to be expanded. We get the government we deserve.