February 24, 2008

Barack Obama criticizes Hillary Clinton for supporting NAFTA, while supporting it himself

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support NAFTA, but Obama is trying to say her support is stronger. Or something. From this:

Barack Obama accused Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday of trying to walk away from a long record of support for NAFTA, the free trade agreement that he said has cost 50,000 jobs in Ohio, site of next week’s primary.

At the same time, he said attempts to repeal the trade deal "would probably result in more job losses than job gains in the United States."

One day after Clinton angrily accused him of distorting her record on the North American Free Trade Agreement in mass mailings, the Illinois senator was eager to rekindle the long-distance debate, using passages from the former first lady’s book as well as her own words...

The article has some of her quotes in support of the deal, and David Sirota reprints them here. Yet, back on October 9, 2007 he wrote:

Obama is the first presidential candidate to officially declare his/her support for the NAFTA expansion moving through the Congress. His announcement is not necessarily surprising, considering he was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Hamilton Project -- a Wall Street front group working to drive a wedge between Democrats and organized labor on globalization issues. His announcement comes just days after a Wall Street Journal poll found strong bipartisan opposition to lobbyist-written NAFTA-style trade policies.

Not only that, but Obama recently dog-whistled his support for the SPP, aka "NAFTA on steroids".

They're both on the wrong side of the issue.

Posted to Politics at February 24, 2008 04:34 PM