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June 19, 2008

Obama Lied to Ohioans About NAFTA

Rick Moran
This is pretty shameless - even for a politician who claims to practice a "new kind" of politics.

During the Ohio primary against Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama skewered her for her support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), calling her out on what many Ohio workers thought was the reason they lost their jobs.

Obama promised that if he were president he never would have signed it in the first place and that if he became president, he would try to renegotiate the terms with Canada and Mexico.

You may recall that his economic advisor told the Candadians that Obama really wasn't serious about this, that it was just campaign rhetoric.

Well, it turns out that the advisor - Austen Goolsbee - was absolutely right:

CNN Money:

The general campaign is on, independent voters up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric - at least when it comes to free trade.

In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine's upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee suggests he doesn't want to unilaterally blow up NAFTA after all.

"Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified," he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA "devastating" and "a big mistake," despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he answered.

What Obama says now is that he believes in "opening up a dialogue" with trading partners Canada and Mexico "and figuring to how we can make this work for all people."

The rank cynicism of this move staggers the imagination. Basically, what Obama is saying is that he doesn't have a very level head and that sometimes he lets hyperbole take over when things get tough. The candidate is hinting at his dishonesty on the matter and brushing it off as "overheated" rhetoric.

This is change we can lie about.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

 

Posted at 10:27 AM | Email | | | Share Share
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