Friday, February 29, 2008

John McCain Lies About Clinton And Obama's Position On NAFTA

At a town-hall meeting in Texas on Friday, corporate lobbyists best friend John McCain decided to emphasize his support for NAFTA. That's fine John, that’s certainly your right to embrace a treaty that has cost thousands of American jobs. But do you have to lie when you do so? McCain said in his comments that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement which would jeopardize crucial military support from Canada.
We need our Canadian friends, and we need their continued support in Afghanistan. So what do we do? The two Democratic candidates for president say they're going to unilaterally abrogate NAFTA.
What happened to that straight talk John, you’re in danger of losing your street cred. Too many martinis with the K street boys? Or perhaps lingering senior naps in the sweltering Arizona sun haved dulled your senses. The truth, is that neither Clinton or Obama said they would abrogate NAFTA. You see, the word abrogate means to abolish or repeal and they never said such a thing. What Obama and Clinton actually said, was that they would "renegotiate" NAFTA and would threaten to opt out of the agreement unless Canada and Mexico come to the negotiating table. Here are their exact quotes. Clinton then Obama.
I will say we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it, and we renegotiate on terms that are favorable to all of America.
I will make sure that we renegotiate. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.
Tell the truth John and while you're at it, tell the people of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas why you don't give a damn about them losing their jobs.

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