Obama camp slams McCain on trade
Posted: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:52 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
As presumptive Republican nominee
McCain headed to Latin America today after an event in Indianapolis, the
Obama camp hosted a conference call to criticize him for what it called failed trade policies.
On the call, Indiana House Majority Leader Russ Stilwell and former UAW Vice President Terry Thurman said McCain was committed to unfair trade policies that have hurt Indiana workers and resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in the state.
VIDEO: MSNBC's Contessa Brewer talks with John McCain's senior policy advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer.
“Just recently, Sen. McCain traveled to Canada to talk about his support for NAFTA and today, after he finishes his speech here in Indiana, he’s hopping on a plane and going to Colombia and Mexico to talk about how much our trade agreements are going to help those countries rather than talking about what we can do to help this country,” Thurman said. “I find it no surprise that he’s gonna go to Mexico to talk (sic) how great NAFTA is because he is certainly not gonna find much support for it in the Hoosier State.”
Thurman said Obama understood that workers had been hurt by bad trade policies that had been poorly negotiated and inadequately enforced and that he would amend NAFTA to enforce labor and environmental standards, enforce existing trade deals and push for greater market access in trade deals.
The call was intended to paint McCain as out of touch with the concerns of American voters who are struggling economically.
“It just amazes me that John McCain comes to Indianapolis to give a little talk and a little fundraiser, and then he's off to Mexico and Colombia, and we've got hard working Hoosiers and Americans across our nation really hurting and they’re hurting about high gas prices, and they're hurting about the economy and they're hurting about the hope for the future and Barack Obama is the only candidate giving them hope,” Stillwell said later.
The Republican National Committee sent around a memo that said trade had brought jobs to the Hoosier State and argued that while Obama had joined the Senate Manufacturing Caucus he “rarely votes with manufacturing interests,” citing the 0% rating the National Association of Manufacturers gave the him for his voting record in the 110th Congress and the 16% rating the group gave him in the 109th Congress.