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Title: Obama hits Clinton on NAFTA support
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080224/ap_on_el_pr/obama
Published: Feb 24, 2008
Author: DAVID ESPO
Post Date: 2008-02-24 16:13:21 by richard9151
Keywords: None
Views: 218
Comments: 10
Ahh, yes, can't you just smell the elections in the air? Or, is that just the stink of Bullshit? Or am I just repeating myself needlessly....... Course, in this post it is about what the queen had to say as well, in which case, of course, it would be the stink of Cowshit in the air instead of Bullshit, but hey, who cares, right? Its still all shit. 4 minutes ago LORAIN, Ohio - 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. "Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton said it was good for America," Obama said. "Well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America — and I never have." "The fact is, she was saying great things about NAFTA until she started running for president," Obama told an audience at a factory that makes wall board, located in a working class community west of Cleveland. "A couple years after it passed, she said NAFTA was a 'free and fair trade agreement' and that it was 'proving its worth.' And in 2004, she said, "I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America," he said. A spokesman for Clinton, Phil Singer, said the former first lady was critical of NAFTA long before she ran for president. He cited remarks from March 2000 in which she said, "What happened to NAFTA I think was we inherited an agreement that we didn't get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion. I think the NAFTA agreement was flawed." Singer also said that in 2004 in Illinois, Obama spoke positively of the trade agreement, saying the United States had "benefited enormously" from exports under NAFTA. The trade agreement has long been unpopular in the industrial Midwest, where critics blame it for lost jobs and shuttered factories, many of which once employed union workers who tend to vote Democratic. Ohio and Texas both hold primaries next week, with 334 delegates combined, and former President Clinton has said publicly his wife probably needs to win both of them if she is to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Vermont and Rhode Island also hold primaries on March 4, but have far fewer delegates and have not attracted nearly as much attention. On another issue, Obama said he was not concerned that Republicans might attempt to depict him as unpatriotic if he becomes the Democratic nominee. Asked about a series of events, such as not placing his hand over his heart during the national anthem, he said, "The way I will respond to it is with the truth. That I owe everything I am to this country." He also said patriotism had more than one definition, and that Republicans had presided over a war "in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed" or were sent into the war zone without enough training. Polls show Clinton with a narrowing lead in Ohio, where trade has long been a sensitive issue. Given that backdrop, the issue is the core of Obama's drive to win the Ohio primary and possibly force Clinton from the race. At the news conference, he noted that she had said Saturday that the agreement was negotiated by President George H.W. Bush, and passed and signed into law while her husband was in the White House. He said Clinton has "essentially presented herself as co-president during the Clinton years. Every good thing that happened she says she was a part of and so the notion that you can selectively pick what you take credit for and then run away from what isn't politically convenient, that doesn't make sense." On Saturday, Clinton called attention to her plan to fix problems with NAFTA and a commitment against any future trade deals "unless they are positive for American workers." To an audience of Boilermakers Union members and their families, Obama promised the same thing, with particular attention paid to labor and environmental concerns. "Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that we can't stop globalization in its tracks and that some of these jobs aren't coming back," he said. "But what I refuse to accept is that we have to stand idly by while workers watch their jobs get shipped overseas."
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#1. To: richard9151 (#0)
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Vote Obama... Vote Clinton.... Vote McCain.... Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
*sigh* - What does it matter who wins anyways? David Rockefeller and his oligarch buddies will just be calling all the shots no matter who wins. This empire is run by the oligarchs, the rest is just window dressing for the rubes. And when you send your kids off to fight and die for "their country", or when you put on "your nation's uniform" and "serve your country", all you are really doing is providing more blood to lube the gears of the empire. It's all a big joke, and us peasants are the punchline. But don't worry, eventually this too shall pass, and this bloody vicious empire will collapse in the dust of history just like every other bloody vicious empire in the history of the world.
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."
Why do we fall sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. -- Alfred, Batman Begins
#2. To: farmfriend (#1)
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
#3. To: richard9151 (#0)
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#4. To: Elliott Jackalope (#3)
That has always been my point. It is 'THEIR' system; not ours. As such, the only important point is that you participate, and, by doing so, validate 'their' system. Nothing else is really important. To 'them.' But no one seems to understand that.
What does it matter who wins anyways?
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
#5. To: Elliott Jackalope (#3)
Print it, frame it, and hang it on the wall.
It's all a big joke, and us peasants are the punchline.
Join the Ron Paul Revolution
Freedom*Peace*Prosperity
#6. To: richard9151 (#2)
Vote Clinton.... Vote McCain.... Three peas in a rotten pod.
Vote Obama...
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton
#7. To: richard9151 (#0)
Bill Clinton held a rally in Bowling Green, OH this afternoon and a couple hundred people showed up.
"Just sit back, don't do anything about it and everything will work out. Hahaha." - Deek Jackson
#8. To: angle (#7)
Did he remember to wipe the corporate overlord cum off of his face before speaking to the peasants?
Bill Clinton held a rally in Bowling Green, OH this afternoon and a couple hundred people showed up.
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#9. To: Elliott Jackalope (#3)
There is no "winning," only degrees of losing.
What does it matter who wins anyways?
"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price." Vir Cotto, Babylon 5
#10. To: angle (#7)
I thought I felt a disturbance in The Force.
Bill Clinton held a rally in Bowling Green
"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price." Vir Cotto, Babylon 5
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