Wouldn't it be ironic if Clinton's presidential bid finally foundered on the rocks of NAFTA? I'm sure the voters of Ohio (and to a lesser extent, Texas) remember the Clinton Administration's flowery rhetoric, and championship of the travesty that is NAFTA as it wasn't forced through Congress all that many years ago. Al Gore will forever be compromised by his support of NAFTA too, no matter what good he does on the war against global warming. David Sirota writes:
Barack Obama is today criticizing Hillary Clinton on her efforts to pretend she never supported NAFTA. Just as a follow-up to my post on Friday, I want to remind folks who claim Hillary Clinton never praised NAFTA that, in fact, she did praise NAFTA - repeatedly.
According to NBC's Meet the Press, in 2004, Clinton said, "I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America."
In her memoir, Clinton trumpeted her husband's "successes on the budget, the Brady bill and NAFTA."
And in 1998, Bloomberg News reports that she praised corporations for mounting "a very effective business effort in the U.S. on behalf of NAFTA." Another direct quote.
I went over two of these three quotes - and some more - in my recent syndicated column…And, as predicted, this issue has now become the central focus in the Ohio primary - the primary that could decide the Democratic nomination.
However you feel about NAFTA - and if you are a typical American, polls show you likely do not like it - Clinton now trying to lie and say she never really supported NAFTA is an absolute insult. It further suggests that on really important economic issues, she's more than happy to lie about provable facts when it suits her political needs.
UPDATE: Here's another direct quote from Hillary Clinton on NAFTA. The Associated Press reported on 3/6/96 that she said, "NAFTA is proving its worth" and later praising NAFTA as "a free and fair trade agreement."
[From David Sirota: Clinton Gets Caught Again on NAFTA - Politics on The Huffington Post]
If you've forgotten the details, Jeff Faux wrote a "Ten Years After" article in 2004:
Ten years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was sold to the people of the United States, Mexico and Canada as a simple treaty eliminating tariffs on goods crossing the three countries' borders. But NAFTA is much more: It is the constitution of an emerging continental economy that recognizes one citizen--the business corporation. It gives corporations extraordinary protections from government policies that might limit future profits, and extraordinary rights to force the privatization of virtually all civilian public services. Disputes are settled by secret tribunals of experts, many of whom are employed privately as corporate lawyers and consultants. At the same time, NAFTA excludes protections for workers, the environment and the public that are part of the social contract established through long political struggle in each of the countries.
As Jorge Castañeda, Mexico's recent foreign secretary, observed, NAFTA was "an accord among magnates and potentates: an agreement for the rich and powerful...effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies." Thus was NAFTA a model for the neoliberal governance of the global economy.
