Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama and NAFTA

17 February 2008


Hillary Clinton's website just put out this piece, titled "Newspapers Reported Obama's Support For NAFTA, Desire to Pursue Similar Agreements." Obama responds: "Clinton Camp Again Pushing Inaccurate Quotes on Obama and NAFTA That Were Debunked Months Ago."

Keep in mind that it was her husband who pushed NAFTA in the first place, and that she praised it as a major accomplishment of his at the time (although her aides are now saying that she was secretly skeptical of it). At a 1998 Davos Economic Summit, she praised business leaders for conducting "a very effective business effort in the U.S. on behalf of NAFTA." To this date, she does not say that it was a mistake, or structurally flawed, but rather that "NAFTA was a mistake to the extent that it did not deliver on what we had hoped it would." Whatever that means.

Again, I'm glad that he's hitting back and not letting her charges go unanswered. But still, it really disturbs me to see the level of dishonesty that has consistently come out of the Clinton campaign. I know that there is a lot of talk about how "tough" she is, and how she has stood up to the "Republican attack machine." But being tough and being dishonest are two different things. One is good, and the other is bad.

Just to recap, she has distorted his ethics reform bill, his position on the PATRIOT Act, his Rezko ties, his "present" votes, his position on abortion, his statements about diplomatic preconditions, his nuclear bill, his position on social security, and his position on the Iraq war. This is just par for the course.

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