NAFTA, take two
Posted: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 3:00 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
It’s NAFTA, take two. Before Ohio, NAFTA became an obvious issue with the 200,000-plus manufacturing jobs that have been lost there since 2000. Clinton was also the obvious target, being that her husband is largely responsible for NAFTA. But it was Obama who wound up taking it on the chin after it was revealed that an economic adviser had met with Canadian officials on the topic. (To reassure or not to reassure? That’s the question.)
So, the Obama campaign is trying again with Pennsylvania approaching, using Clinton’s AFL-CIO speech as peg. In her speech, she said she had opposed NAFTA since 1992. The Obama campaign also brought out Rep. George Miller, an Obama supporter, who opposed NAFTA. He says he doesn’t remember Clinton lobbying those who were opposed, like him. And he cites her White House schedules as evidence that she, in fact, lobbied for it.
I find it rather interesting,” Miller said, adding there’s “hard evidence” that in a “number of instances, she spoke in favor of” NAFTA … “lobbied for NAFTA. Why didn’t she speak to those of us” working against it?
“I don’t know who these audiences were,” Miller continued, “but they weren’t members of Congress, who were working” to amend or kill NAFTA. “I find it very disturbing that she’d try to rewrite history at this point. … Both [Obama and Clinton] are good candidates; I don’t think they need to inflate their resumes.”
Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs called her opposition to NAFTA an “exaggeration” and likened it to her “sniper fire” comments.
“This is not just about the past,” Gibbs added. It speaks of how she would be in the “future,” Gibbs said.
NOTE: On Time's reporting that Obama raised $30 million in March, Gibbs said, "Only two people in the campaign know that -- the campaign manager and the finance director. I don't think it's accurate. We hope to provide a number tomorrow."
Gibbs did not indicate in which direction the number was inaccurate.
