Obama on NAFTA: Against It Before He Was For It
By Charles Lemos on June 20, 2008 at 11:20 AM in Austan Goolsbee, Barbara Jordan, Economy, Employment, Hillary Clinton, NAFTA, Ohio, Unemployment, Unions, Workers
“I have always opposed NAFTA.”
“I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.”
“Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton said it was good for America. … Well, I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.” –Senator Barack Obama in Toledo, Ohio on February 24, 2008
Now in an interview with Fortune magazine out on Monday June 23, 2008, the very junior Senator from Illinois wants us to believe that was just rhetoric. He really didn’t mean what he said.
“Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” –Senator Barack Obama in a Fortune magazine interview to be published Monday June 23, 2008
Never mind the heat of battle rhetoric, how about the more reflective printed word?
In his own flyer, Obama is quoted as saying that “one million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio.” But those figures come from an anti-NAFTA source, the Economic Policy Institute written by Robert Schott. Other economists have criticized that report’s methodology and its conclusions as having overstated the impact of NAFTA, rather they point to a lax enforcement of regulations that have permitted an exodus of American manufacturing jobs and primarily to China, Korea and other East Asian countries not to Mexico or Canada. Other economic studies have concluded the trade deal resulted in much smaller job losses or even a small net gain. Here’s what the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has to say on NAFTA’s effects on American jobs:
NAFTA’s net effect on jobs in the United States has been minuscule, given the size of the U.S. economy and the importance of other trading partners.
The best models to date suggest that NAFTA has caused either no net change in employment or a very small net gain of jobs.
And that’s now after seven years of the Bush Administration failing to enforce regulations that shed American jobs. Under President Clinton, it was a far different story. Here’s Professor of Economics Brad Delong (an Obama supporter, I might add) of the University of California at Berkeley writing in July 2000:
It is time to conclude that NAFTA–the North American Free Trade Agreement–is a success.
His article largely is about the impact of NAFTA on Mexico but he finds that economic benefits accrued to all members of the trade pact. However, he does note the following:
Far from shrinking, employment in autos and auto parts in America has grown by more than twenty percent since the beginning of NAFTA. Far from falling, hourly earnings of U.S. automotive workers have risen since the beginning of NAFTA.
Even as recently as February 2008, just about the time Obama was making his comments in Toledo on how he had always opposed NAFTA, Professor Delong was writing that NAFTA was not the cause of Ohio’s woes.
And, of course, if we go back to his Senate campaign of 2004, Obama said this:
“The United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA.” quoted in an article by Ron Ingram, Obama, Keyes Court Farmers, Decatur Herald & Review, on September 9, 2004. Source: Lexis/Nexis.
So he was for it before he was against before he was for it. Sound familiar? And so much for the “I never have” part of his argument.
And one more point, I may not remember what I had for lunch earlier this week, but I do remember what I have said over the years, maybe because I have core convictions and that is just it with Senator Obama, he has no core convictions. It’s always what is politically expedient for him at the time.
More on this topic and perhaps others once the full interview is out. He can excuse his “rhetoric” as a slip of the tongue but the printed word is a little harder to dismiss.
_________
From my blog, By The Fault.
Well surprise, surprise…more “about faces”…
This wasn’t the NAFTA I knew.
LMAO:
That’s not the NAFTA I knew. Classic.
OMG what a {{{{BIG FAT}}}} flip flopper!! I guess that’s what we can expect from the OBAMARAMA sock puppet in GE. I’m soooo surprise, NOT!
Did you hear Elian’s Gonzalez’s Great Uncle is denoucing Obamarama today in FL?
Yes!! There goes the Cuban vote
NOBAMA-NOKERRY 08
Where did you here this?…about Gonzalez’s uncle..
I have the story. It will be up on my blog later today.
Charles
bythefault.com
Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi for Obama (excerpts from yesterday’s speech)
There are elections in America now. Along came a black citizen of Kenyan African origins, a Muslim, who had studied in an Islamic school in Indonesia. His name is Obama. All the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man. They welcomed him and prayed for him and for his success, and they may have even been involved in legitimate contribution campaigns to enable him to win the American presidency. But we were taken by surprise when our African Kenyan brother, who is an American national, made statements that shocked all his supporters in the Arab world, in Africa, and in the Islamic world. We hope that this is merely an elections “clearance sale,” as they say in Egypt – in other words, merely an elections lie. As you know, this is the farce of elections – a person lies and lies to people, just so that they will vote for him, and afterwards, when they say to him: :“You promised this and that,” he says: “No, this was just elections propaganda.” This is the farce of democracy for you. He says: “This was propaganda, and you thought I was being serious. I was fooling you to get your votes.”
Allah willing, it will turn out that this was merely elections propaganda. Obama said he would turn Jerusalem into the eternal capital of the Israelis. This indicates that our brother Obama is ignorant of international politics, and is not familiar with the Middle East conflict.
The thing we fear most is that the black man suffers from an inferiority complex. This is dangerous. If our brother Obama feels that because he is black he doesn’t have the right to rule America, this would be a disaster, because such a feeling would make him behave whiter than the white, and go to an extreme in his persecution and degradation of the blacks.
fascinating, could you link this? thanks.
I went to goggle…found clips…here is the Goggle page
http://tinyurl.com/5jlr9r
it came from this..I believe..from June 11
http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1791.htm
this is the same tinpot dictator that takes LSD regularly, isn’t he larry?
Cocaine and LSD aren’t remotely similar. Let’s not demogogue LSD because it’s cute to throw in another drug to make the case for the cocaine an urban legend.
By the way, actual LSD that Albert Hoffmann developed has not been in the black market, nor clinical markets for over 30 years.
As a level 1 classed drug you need research specific to it’s focus [epilepsy and other neurological debiltating disorders] in order to have access to it.
What’s on the market today is a derivative like a poor stepchild.
this is from the speech by al-quadafi. If you would like to here the whole thing to to my blog
http://democratsforrealchange.info
the post is
“Menerjang Harapan: Dari Jakarta Menuju Gedung Putih: Obama’s Indonesian Version of “Audacity of Hope”
Good heavens - I truly dislike Obama. What a turd!
I was never for the turd before I was against the turd.
Me, neither….thankfully I’ve never stepped in any shit.
Obama flip-flops…. I`m aghast!!
Obama: Shameless Duplicitous Panderer.
All this time I think he meant “UNTIE,” not unite … this nation for a typo?
We have always said …he will say what he has to just to get votes…it depends on what state he is in….is anyone in the democratic party keeping track of all his flip flops now that we don’t have Hillary doing it?….
What is next? Is he going to claim multiple personality to explain the flip flop?
It sounds like not just his “flip-flap” actions.
I wonder whether he is mentally ill.
Are you a troll…you accused me,HARP and ame of being Obama moles and of being anti- Hillary people working within her campaign…Who are you….you didn’t answer me in the other thread?
words, just words
Given Obama’s painfully thin resume, his contant flip-flopping on the issues, and his penchant to lie blatantly about his past and past associates (as if we would not notice), I’m disgusted with ANY democratic leader who does not have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to Obama, or at least decline to jump on the bandwagon. Country before party!
Worse than Kerry ever was. Two faced whore talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Yes.
He supposedly was against telecom immunity, too, but provided absolutely NO LEADERSHIP on the issue.
The House, led by Pelosi and Stoyer , just gave the Bush administration everything it wanted.
And Obama never said a word, never took a public stand, never showed party leadership in stopping that.
Meet the new boss, just like the old boss.
Just words.
Barack Obama=Politics as usual
I am losing hope. Obama seems to be pulling away in almost every important swing state, and McCain now seems incapable of taking any blue states from Obama. Unless some “smoking gun” is released, no damage appears to be done to Obama. Americans are so dumbed-down and brainwashed that they will accept this farce. If white Americans are not repulsed by his and Michelle’s connections to NOI, the “whitey” comments, etc, etc, then I don’t know what the hell is going to convince them NOT to vote for this guy. McCain is facing an incredible, uphill battle. I think Obama is going to win, and there will be a deep sense of buyer’s remorse early next year.
I also cannot understand why Obama is maintaining 10-20 point margins with many women in key swing states. Why are these Hillary supporters flocking to this guy? Sigh ….. nothing makes any sense this year. Bill Clinton was right - what a great election it would have been to have two people who loved their country!
Don’t trust the pols.
I’m old enough to remember Dukakis was 17 points ahead at this time, too.
I think we ALL know how that worked out, eh?
I was so devastated that year.
Kerry also had a double digit lead
I’m with you. I’m deeply concerned and quite frankly, scared of the probability of Obama winning the general election. Pray for the best, but expect the worst.
The polls mean nothing at this point. The Republicans know what they are doing but I believe that they are waiting to unleash their wrath.
The media is blowing off the flip flop from Obama about public campaign financing. He rambles on about the Republican 527’s. Hmmm…what about the Moveon commercials that mention the 100 year war? It also implies that McCain would bring back the draft.
What nonsense. Someone suggested that the Republicans should copycat the ad showing the baby older volunteering to serve our nation.
The other ad about “why I am a Republican” is very misleading as well.
Obama…always pointing the finger..the wrong way.
People have not changed their minds.
The ones who didn’t work on Hill’s campaign or blog are not going for it. He turns their stomach. I don’t want to get specific who, what and where because it will help his campaign but trust me. Those who are not voting McCain will sit this out.
Remember, the polls are way off in favor Of BHO.
Don’t pay attention to polls or news. They lie.
No One wants this guy.
I feel he doesn’t represent the AA community so pick a better candidate next time.
He’s not running to be a part of history or to represent the AA’s. He’s running because he’s a crook and they selected him to protect them and their own crooked ways. Capice? Them being the governmental body now running this country.
I hope you are right. I still see the black vote going for him 96-4, in many states, and it makes me wonder why they are so blindly following him. At least these comments offer me some encouragement that the polls may be wrong.
me thinks you may be a BO supporter
big shoes
Hope won’t put food on your table.
You are mistaken. You appear to be a bot.
I do not trust BO. No way will I ever vote for him.
OFF TOPIC: Breaking news. The abused woman now helps her abuser..
CHICAGO - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign announced Friday that he will campaign with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton next week, a step toward unifying a fractured Democratic Party after a bruising primary fight.
ADVERTISEMENT
Obama’s campaign said in a brief e-mail that said the two senators and former opponents will campaign together for the first time on Friday, June 27, and more details would be forthcoming.
A day earlier, Obama and Clinton also plan to meet in Washington with some of her top contributors in an effort to calm donors who remain frustrated with Obama’s presidential campaign. The former first lady will introduce Obama to her financial backers.
Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination earlier this month after Obama, an Illinois senator, secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination.
Obama’s campaign disclosed the joint appearance — but offered few details — one day after announcing that he would reverse an earlier position and reject some $85 million in public financing for the general election. That announcement opened him up to a flood of criticism and dominated the news cycle.
Thus, Obama’s campaign sought to redirect attention by putting word out a full seven days in advance that Obama and Clinton would campaign together
I still will never vote for Obama.
so… now he NEEDS her - too little, too late
McCain ‘08
There’s a pattern developing. Obama will do “anything” to win and that includes flip flopping on issues.
Sounds like the old car or trucks coming down the road slinging rubber from the tires–FLIPPETY FLOP–FLIPPITY FLOP– FLIPPETY FLOP, ready to blow at any minute!LOL. maybe BO will blow out soon–wishful thinking
That is not a developing pattern. It has AlWAYS been O’boys pattern.
People are now starting to recognize it.
BO and McCain are both vile
What a shitty, shitty choice we have
Do you want diarrhea or constipation?
They both stink
Thank you! I totally agree!
It’s a hideous, hideous choice!!
HILLARY HANG TIGHT!!
Larry Sinclair’s complete interview at the Press Club has been released. If this guy is a nut,
he sure doesn’t show it…..looks pretty level headed and open to accepting responsibility for his
actions unlike the person he accuses.
http://www.larrysinclair.org/press.html
Obama is a habitual liar. The other Muslims go out and die for their cause while obama chooses to lie instead. LOL! Just like Farrakhan, Wright, and Bin Laden. I suppose Howard Dean is not ready to sacrifice his ass for 16 virgins either. LOL. OH, I forgot, Howie baby isn’t a Muslim, he is a socialist. Obama is the Muslim who uses marxist tactics that doesn’t require the use of harems, but only male and females who prostitue themselves for the cracker.
Good news! I found the Michelle Obama whitey tape: http://www.lidel.org/hello
TROLL SHIT>>>DO NOT OPEN
Its a video of some old naked guys playing with each other., They look remarkedly like Obama’s money men.
DO NOT OPEN
Larry, dump Hank’s post and excoriate the bastard who sent it.
The video by troll probably has a trojan virus tracker on it too—trojan is a virus like a cookie Harp, and not a condom..LOL
trojan cookies. self installing.
I did a system restore and then ad-aware and then quarantined the alerts. do you think that’s enough?
larry has to moderate the comments, because it looks like the Obamaniacs want to play dirty.
this is the “whois” for the guy who posted the trojan on the “whitey” link Krasnystaw Poland? Fundamentalist homophobic ?Poland
Registrant ID:ONLC-2177692-4
Registrant Name:Marcin Rataj
Registrant Organization:Marcin Rataj
Registrant Street1:Lwowska
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Krasnystaw
Registrant State/Province:lubelskie
Registrant Postal Code:22-300
Registrant Country:PL
Registrant Phone:+48.511158097
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+48.124244030
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:admin@lidel.org
Admin ID:ONLC-2177692-1
Admin Name:Piotr Nowak
Admin Organization:NetArt
Admin Street1:Zabawa 118
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Wieliczka
Admin State/Province:malopolskie
Admin Postal Code:32-020
Admin Country:PL
Admin Phone:+48.124244010
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:+48.124244030
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:info@nazwa.pl
Tech ID:ONLC-2177692-2
Tech Name:Marcin Rataj
Tech Organization:Marcin Rataj
Tech Street1:ul. Lwowska 20
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Krasnystaw
Tech State/Province:lubelskie
Tech Postal Code:22-300
Tech Country:PL
Tech Phone:+48.511158097
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+48.124244030
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:marcin.rataj@gmail.com
Name Server:FNS2.SGH.WAW.PL
Name Server:FNS1.SGH.WAW.P
I ditto what everyone else has said about Obama. He scares me. However, it is great to read that everyone also has said that they will not vote for him. With all band together, he will not get in the White House. Hillary Clinton in 2012.
From your mouth to Gods ear.
Off Subject:
Just got a disgusting email from Pelosi begging for money. It included an email sent earlier this week by Obama.
Poor Broke/Broken DNC!
I don’t think DNC is broke. I think they are insatiable and greedy. Tell them to step down so we can have government by the people FOR THE PEOPLE NOT government by them and for them.
There is a new democrat group called the Denver group that needs donations. Please donate or pass the message. It’s a puma group. Heidi li is taking pledges.
Email her back in red. All communication back to them is done in red.
I tell them to get it from Obama. Period.
***********Attention*************
and mention this flip-flop of obama —if they can receive at least 5,000 e-mails about it -i am sure –they will cover it —-
E-mail to LOU DOBBS ——CANDY —-
WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK ???
BREAKING!!!!!!!!!!
Obama Cuts Ad For Conservative Pro-War House Dem
By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - June 19, 2008, 12:18PM
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/barack_obama_john_barrow.php
Barack Obama has cut a radio spot for conservative Dem Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, who favors staying in Iraq and favors immunity for the telecom companies, and he’s taking a beating from liberal bloggers over it.
Barrow is loathed by the Netroots, and not without cause: During his 2006 reelection campaign he ran an ad saying that “we can’t cut and run” from Iraq. And he was one of the House Dems who sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi demanding that they be permitted to vote for the recent Senate bill giving amnesty to the telecoms.
Alot of us know BHO will have us in Iraq longer than McCain will. DOH!
John Barrow?!? I am sure that the Dailykos hate-site has already gotten out their lame explanations for this.
Just on this week’s revelations on BO, if I didn’t hate him so much already, I’d really dislike him. What the hell are his idealists-supporters are thinking?! He is already shitting on their rosy dreams for “change”. He is nothing but a power-hungry opportunist.
I hope Bill stops this. BHO nows wants to be introduced to Hillary’s donors. BHO has taken advantage of them and ruined his legacy..what is going on?? Hillary and Bill just say no. We see that you are setting yourself up. BHO and his backers chief goal is to ruin you, in case you missed it.
WE do not want this man for President and Hill’s donors don’t want him either..don’t press it.
It’s got to be killing them to have to kiss Barry’s butt.
Politics has always been disgusting! imo but…
This year there are no words for it.
It sounds a lot like Orwell’s “1984″:
Big Brother: “We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.”
Big Bama: “I am for NAFTA. I have always been for NAFTA.”
Yahoo news is saying Hillary will campaign for Obama. If that is true, I am writing Hillary off too. If she campaigns for him then she condones everything he has said and done and is no different than Obama.
Unfortunately it won’t be released until after the convention. Otherwise it’ll just be explained away.
It has to have impact.
Read to whole article upline about Hillary campaigning for BHO..the abused woman helps her abuser..This is one reason why she is having a tough time retiring her debt
Y? Y? Y? Y? WHY???????????????????
AFTER?????
ARGH!!!!!!!!!
it will have the MOST impact (to me) before it’s too late to vote 4 Hillary. After the convention is too late. TOOOOOO LATE!!!
Stop poking sticks at us animals here in the zoo! U know how that makes us act out! lol
The whole purpose of the tape is to stop his presidency. You see how his other issues didn’t stop his nomination. If it is released now it will be explained away and the ace in the hole is GONE!. It’s for votes not anything else…it’s not for having Hillary as nominee because there are no more votes now. It wil be a waste to release it now. It will do no good. Capice?
Politicos who support NAFTA, off-shoring and free trade in general are don’t generate very much support among working and middle-class people, since they are the ones most hurt by such policies.
NAFTA gutted the working class in this country and devastated a lot industries from textiles(that almost don’t exist here anymore), to manufacturing and food production.
Hell, companies are still relocating to Mexico to this day.
And Off-shoring is rapidly stripping whats left of our manufacturing and tech sectors so that we don’t produce much anymore except shysters,burger flippers and paper pushers.
BTW this issue will also hurt McCain. He’s a ardent “free trader” and has that idiot bitch Fiorina(aka: the Wrecking Ball) as a economic adviser. As a result McCain has nothing to offer working and middle-class people except more pain.
Now add in the economic pain that most Americans are feeling now and McCain doesn’t look good. And g-d help the GOP if it gets worse, because the public will take out their anger on the GOP at the polls.
And if Obama picks a populist and hard ass like Webb as VP, he’s stands to pick up a lot of working and middle-class votes, that would otherwise be staying home come election day.
However, in McCain you would get an American Patriot and not an Anti-American who agrees with Wright , Farrakhan, and Ayers and etc
I was reading your post until I got to the “idiot b****” part
The audacity of nope - NOBAMA
Big change of subject here, but I didn’t know where else to put it where everyone would see it. Infuriating.
http://blog.unheardamericanvoices.com/2008/06/17/who-put-this-huge-knife-in-hillary-clintons-back–by-karen-hill.aspx
I will state plainly and simply Hillary Clinton was blatantly sabotaged from inside her campaign I can discern no other logical conclusion
Political propaganda. Say what you need to say to whoever you’re speaking to to get their votes. Is this the change we can believe in? Is this flip-flopping the change he’s talking about? We can change, YES WE CAN! We can flip-flop, YES WE CAN!
Well, he’s definitely not lying about the change.
This is the great lie of Obama-Change. What has he ever changed. I am reminded of an article written in June of 2006 where Obama shows us wo he really is.
Obama is just the same old politician who won’t fight to change when it is easier to give-in.
What has he changed?
His mind.
His positions.
The stance he has on issues.
And quite affectively.
Let’s send a fax to her campaign office 703.962.8600 asking her to not campaign for BO.
I have been a Hillary supporter for years, but I have to wonder what the hell is going on. She should have never suspended her campaign, she should be taking this to Denver, she and her supporters should be screaming bloody murder. Now I know I have seen many of her supporters on Fox News discussing how they will not vote for Obama, but where are the demonstrations, the protests, etc. You know if this was happening to Obama there would be rioting in the streets!
How can Hillary campaign for this man? How can she introduce him to her donors?? How can she just step aside while Obama and the powers that be at the DNC steal this nomination from her? Why is she taking all this from a party that clearly DOES NOT WANT HER???
Does she know they whole bunch is out to destroy her and Bill? I mean they may not know.
There will be rioting in the streets this Saturday in Miami and across the nation..I can’t post details here. There are sub groups against Obama rioting across the country. Tomorrow. Please check in your city.
She was forced to suspend her campaign. She may have been threatened her Senate seat.
PONDER THIS:
There is a group that has called themselves exposeobama. I was just invited to view there latest commercial they are working on. It was very interesting because it suggests what many of us have been questioning all along. Is Obama a Muslim? It is not so much a issue that he was or is. It is an issue of the truth having been exposed and Obama not being truthful despite the evidence. Just because you say something does not make it a fact or the truth. And just because you name something you don’t like or wish would go away as a smear does not make it a smear. Watch this video and comment on our contact us page!
http://hillaryloyalistnowformccain.com/ponderthis.aspx
“HOPE noone notices I CHANGE my mind often”- Barry O-Waffle
“*HOPE* noone notices I *CHANGE* my mind often”- Barry O-Waffle
For those wondering why Hillary will be campaigning for Obama the answer is simple: she stated in her concession speech that she would do so, and would campaign vigorously for the democratic nominee no matter who it was. She is a democrat and it is expected of her whether she wants to or not, especially if she wants to retain her standing amongst the democratic elite. If McCain wins the election, she has a good shot of winning the presidency in 2012 and would not want to upset the party elders at this point in time.
Regardless, I wish McCain would choose her as his vice president. What a winning ticket that would be!
This was not a flip-flop. This was