Clinton Is New to Nafta Criticism, Obama Says

[babylonsister]

Clinton Is New to Nafta Criticism, Obama Says

By Jeff Zeleny

MARION, Iowa — Senator Barack Obama is accusing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of waiting until she was a presidential candidate to suggest that the North American Free Trade Agreement -– enacted during her husband’s administration -– was a mistake.

“I think it’s important to note that Senator Clinton was a cheerleader for Nafta for more than a decade. As of a year ago, she was calling it a boon to the economy,” Mr. Obama told reporters here today. “It seems to me that the only thing that has changed in the last year is that it’s now election time.”

Mr. Obama opened a two-day Iowa campaign swing in this city outside of Cedar Rapids. As he delivered his criticism, he glanced down to his printed notes, which rested on a podium.

“As some of you probably heard at the debate the other night, Senator Clinton called Nafta a mistake,” Mr. Obama said. “I was pleased to hear her say that because, as more than 10,000 jobless Iowans know, that’s exactly what Nafta has been.”

more...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/clinton-new-to-nafta-criticism-obama-says/

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. No doubt about that. A fair cop.

[JDPriestly]

2. Both Clinton and Obama voted for the Peru Trade Deal.

So Obama is following the same path that Clinton follows. We need a moratorium on trade deals of that kind while we rethink and renegotiate the trade mess we are now in.

Americans have reacted to free trade like a kid with pockets full of money at a candy store. We are buying everything in sight and not thinking about the fact that when the money (mostly borrowed money at that) is gone, we will be left with tummy aches. We need to grow up. Getting stuff cheap (mostly trashy stuff cheap) is not smart if the stuff does not build a healthy body. Right now, American industry and thus our economy are sick. The cheap stuff made by slave labor is not making us healthy. We need to stop the cheap stuff binge and put ourselves back to work -- real work, not just passing hamburgers back and forth.

[ellisonz]

8. Well here's why Peru is ok...

"But another Democratic presidential contender, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has said he plans to support the Peru deal because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, were able to persuade Bush administration and Peru to strengthen the pact's labor and environmental provisions.

"Unlike NAFTA and CAFTA, the Peru Trade Agreement includes real, enforceable labor and environmental protections," Obama spokesman Jen Psaki said.

"Speaker Pelosi and Congressmen Rangel and Levin deserve credit for fighting hard for these provisions, and Barack Obama supports their efforts to make sure that our trade policies help American workers, not just big corporations," Psaki said.

The AFL-CIO labor federation, which has a history of opposing trade agreements, has taken a neutral position on the Peru and Panama deals. But it remains strongly opposed to the pacts with South Korea and Colombia, which it calls the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071030/pl_nm/usa_trade_peru_clinton_dc

[Life Long Dem]

3. I agree. She wants to evalutate NAFTA.

That's like saying Iraq was a mistake and I will evaluate the mistake. I don't want any evaluations or reports and such. That's just avoiding any real action. For crying out loud her husband should be able to inform her on NAFTA if she was going to act on this other than evaluating.

[dkf]

4. Has NAFTA really done that much?

Seems to me that the jobs are in China and India not Canada or Mexico.

Am I off base here?

[Dems Will Win]

5. A lot went to Mexican factories in the north actually

That's what those numbers are.

[Bitwit1234]

6. Obama, is he an expert now on everything.

since he is giving out all these statements about this, statements about that, I guess his encyclopedia mind is in full swing.

[Forkboy]

7. You're right, candidates shouldn't speak at all. Marcel Marceau in '08!

[Dems Will Win]

9. kick