SocraticGadfly: CLINTON was first on NAFTA ‘wink, wink’ to Canada

March 06, 2008

CLINTON was first on NAFTA ‘wink, wink’ to Canada

That’s what Canada’s top paper, the Globe and Mail, says.

Ian Brodie, chief of staff to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, supposedly talked about Clinton staff back-dooring on NAFTA to a CTV informal press backgrounder:
”He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton’s campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry.”

And, CTV was looking at the Clinton angle first:
CTV News President Robert Hurst said he would not discuss his journalists’ sources.

But others said the content of Mr. Brodie’s remarks was passed on to CTV’s Washington bureau and their White House correspondent set out the next day to pursue the story on Ms. Clinton's apparent hypocrisy on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

However, CTV coverage focused on Obama, for whatever reason. Anyway, Clinton and Obama are both missing the boat in several ways.

First, the focus should be on the WTO, not NAFTA. Second, within NAFTA, put more money in the federal jobs retraining fund.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Hillary's own words, she says she's pathetic.

Hillary “Pathetic” Clinton

Hillary's FALSE accusation 1:
_Plagiarism --Deval Patrick himself stated that Barack Obama did not plagiarize him. (See video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbR_JxTHTz4&NR
However, Hillary DID plagiarize John Edwards and Bill Clinton in her heralded closing debate statement.

Hillary's FALSE accusation 2:
_Canadian/NAFTA Stand --Hillary accused Obama of saying one thing to voters, but another to Canada. Barack Obama did not sanction any meeting with Canada. (See video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAJYMgX4JuU
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html?em&ex=1204779600&en=bc1674b80a8eb1e3&ei=5087%0A
Though he works on Obama’s campaign, Pro. Austan D. Goolsbee of the University of Chicago was invited by Canadian officials to participate in a general meeting and later into the meeting they brought up the subject of NAFTA. Professor Goolsbee was invited as a guest professor of economics not “intending” to represent the Obama campaign. Evenso, Pro. Goolsbee did not state anything different from Obama’s stance on NAFTA from the debate. Obviously, renegotiations on NAFTA have not taken place, and therefore, there is no clarity concerning policy changes within the agreement. Until actual negotiations take place between the US and Canada, anything candidates say about NAFTA is merely their STAND (political positioning) on renegotiating the Free Trade Agreement. Hillary knows this, but successfully ran away with her false accusation anyway.

Hillary’s FALSE accusation 3:
_NAFTA and Healthcare mailers –“Shame on You” –Hillary blasted Obama about mailers and claimed that her stand on those issues were not true. However, her stand on those issues are true. She did support NAFTA, and Clinton has said that she would consider garnishing wages for those who don't buy health insurance under her plan, but she said that is part of her current plan.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332089,00.html
In the following final debate, Hillary was proved to not be telling the truth. Furthermore, Hillary cried “shame on you” about mailers when her campaign had in fact sent mailers and TV ads out against Obama in New Hampshire, etc. Hillary was being hypocritical. She can do mailers and TV ads, but Obama can’t? plz.

Gadfly said...

I'm a fan of neither of the two Democrats. That said, it's interesting that CTV ran with the Obama story first. Perhaps Canadian media, like here in the U.S., has a habit of focusing its fire on frontrunners.

Anonymous said...

That's it! I cannot stand Hillary Clinton any more! I used to give her every benefit of the doubt but she has no shred of integrity! OUTRAGE!!!! How can Hillary say the press is unfair to her when all this week they have propagated the FALSE story that the Obama campaign had contacted the Canadian government with a "wink wink" about NAFTA--- And now AFTER THE TEXAS OHIO PRIMARIES the OUTRAGEOUS TRUTH comes out that IT WAS THE HILLARY CAMPAIGN THAT CONTACTED THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT -- DOING EXACTLY WHAT SHE FALSELY ACCUSED THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN OF! After hundreds of FALSE Obama smears all across the media, there is this too little and way-too-late news saying Hillary did it too---as if to say Hillary is just as bad as Obama. This still implicates Obama and doesn't even CALL HILLARY OUT FOR BEING THE DUPLICITOUS, CONNIVING MANIPULATOR SHE has just proven to be! (Yuck! It makes my skin crawl!)

Gadfly said...

Sorry, but they're equally bad. Especially since neither of them can point to any international labor accord violations by either country. (McClatchy called out both campaigns on this issue.)

It just happens that CTV emphasized Obama first.

That said, if either one of them really wanted to do anything, they'd pledged to increase federal funding for job retraining programs, specially the program to retrain people who lose jobs due to NAFTA.

Second, they'd concentrate their fire on the WTO, not NAFTA, and, above all, try to modify the WTO to allow for carbon-dioxide tariffs.