Obama: NAFTA didn't put food on the table.

[denem]

Whoever is your candidate, this is a real zinger:

"She says speeches don't put food on the table. You know what? NAFTA didn't put food on the table, either," (Obama) said, bringing the Rust Belt crowd to its feet.

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/politics-2/1203385769281890.xml&storylist=president

[lapfog_1]

1. But it's a struggle to put food on your family!

"You're working hard to put food on your family." —Presidential candidate George W. Bush, Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000

[ingac70]

2. K&R!

[CorpGovActivist]

37. .

[Skittles]

3. BUT THAT'S THE PROBLEM

*NEITHER* NAFTA nor SPEECHES put food on the table

[denem]

5. There were plenty of speeches about NAFTA I remember.

... going to solve Mexican poverty vs Sucking sounds. And Powerpoint points.

[Skittles]

6. Congress has had plenty of time to address the issue

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE THEY DONE?

[denem]

7. US plants moving across the border?

Agreed. They've done nothing. Mexico still in poverty? It's a corrupt political system. The left lines it's own pockets, the Right lines their master's pockets. A higher GDP doesn't mean less poverty. Che? ;)

[Skittles]

10. YES

so now HRC and Obama are addressing the issue - WTF!!! TELL US WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING ABOUT IT ALL THESE YEARS!!!!!!

[woodsprite]

14. Making sure we're protected from steroids. n/t

[Skittles]

31. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

DON'T GET ME STARTED WOODSPRITE :o

[casus belli]

4. Her husband seems to be doing pretty well with it.

6 figures per speech buys alot of food. They might need a bigger table.

[CorpGovActivist]

18. Ah. Well. Now you're just splitting hairs.

[Alexander]

8. K&R, everyone needs to see this.

NAFTA has been disastrous for our country and I dare any Shillbot to defend it.

[Apollo11]

9. Is Obama trying to say that he is against free trade?

I have noticed that both Hillary and Obama have been increasingly critical of free trade in their speeches and interviews. Maybe they are trying to win the trust of John Edwards' supporters?

Hillary has been strongly criticized for supposedly going too far in her remarks about free trade, by none other than Tony Blair's former campaign strategist Peter Mandelson, who is currently the European Commissioner for Trade, and the European Union's chief negotiatior to the WTO.

You can read all about it here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/05/europe/EU-GEN-EU-Clinton-Trade.php

Peter Mandelson was also interviewed on BBC TV:
"I mean Hillary, you know she's a very tried, tested, tough, robust politician. And I would have, I would have put her into the Clintonite sort of free trade camp. But now she's started to question the very principles on which free trade takes place. She's said that she would take time out from future trade agreements and has even put a question mark over the World Trade Round. Now this is not what I would have expected from her."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/7237370.stm

[denem]

11. NAFTA was an error of judgment.

I think that is the message. It promised much and delivered little. The fundamental flaw was the belief that if the Mexican economy prospered, poverty would be alleviated. The hard inequitable distribution of wealth in Mexico was and is due to governance, not economic growth. The whole premise was wrong. Throw in US subsidies on agriculture being 'free traded' - it was a major mistake.

[aaroh]

12. can't beleive hillary supported nafta

[denem]

13. Maybe she didn't but

we are in the perception game here. Obama didn't say Hillary personally supported NFTA. He doesn't have to.

[Carolina]

33. maybe she didn't

BUT she claims 35 years of experience which includes the derivative experience from Bill's 8 as POTUS which is when we were given NAFTA. Have to take the good with the bad, eh

[ShortnFiery]

15. Excellent come back from Obama!

:applause:

Go Obama! :patriot:

[OhioChick]

16. How True.

K&R
:kick:

[Vinca]

17. Bill's speeches put food on the table - lots of it. nt

[jackson_dem]

28. 22 million jobs, poverty cut by 8 million, rising wages for all, longest peacetime expansion ever

How does that record compare to Obama's? How many jobs did Obama's renaming a post office bill create?

[Carolina]

34. BUT that's Bill's record

I thought it was HRC who was running! Can't have it both ways.

[Iceburg]

19. and yet Obama voted to EXTEND NAFTA ...eat that America/nt

[mod mom]

20. Stubbornly clinging to a bad decision (think IWR) isn't leadership, Obama:

Obama (Finally) Putting Attack On NAFTA Front and Center?

Posted February 12, 2008 | 11:15 PM (EST)

From Barack Obama's victory speech tonight:
"It's a game where trade deals, like NAFTA, ship jobs overseas and force parents to compete with their teenagers to work for minimum wages at the local fast-food joint or at Wal-Mart. It's what happens when the American worker doesn't have a voice at the negotiating table, when leaders change their positions on trade with the politics of the moment, and that is why we need a president who will listen not just to Wall Street, but to Main Street, a president who will stand with workers not just when it's easy, but when it's hard, and that's the kind of president I intend to be when I'm president of the United States of America."

I've been troubled by some of Obama's votes on trade, and I've made no bones about that. But this rhetoric is encouraging.

As I have written, it's good politics for Obama to put our lobbyist-written trade policy on trial in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. But that' s not why I am encouraged. I am encouraged because it is good for the country for a major candidate to put this issue at the center of the debate in the stretch run of the nominating process.

-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/obama-finally-putting-a_b_86346.html

[denem]

24. And that was why I cheered John Edwards everytime he talked about

corporate power and greed deepening poverty, economic and social injustice. I had huge doubts about his electability, but it was just great hearing the truth again after the greed is good celebrations beginning in 1981.

[PretzelWarrior]

21. Great post. and Kicked for OBAMA

[jackson_dem]

22. Obama was for NAFTA before he was against it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4656600&mesg_id=4656600

He will say anything to win. His record doesn't match his rhetoric.

[rinsd]

23. Hey that was before he started to run for President so that doesn't count.

[jackson_dem]

29. Oops. How could I forget? I need another swig of Kool Aid! That will fix it!

[cooolandrew]

25. YAY !!!!!! WTG OBAMA !!!

[HeraldSquare212]

26. ouch!

[Barack_America]

27. That was a good line.

And sounds like it was well-received as well.

[rinsd]

30. Obama scurbs website of pro-globalization rhetoric

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4664208

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlackVelvet04]

35. why did he vote to expand NAFTA then? n/t

[Clinton Crusader]

36. blah blah blah HE VOTED TO EXTEND NAFTA!

"Obama Says He Will Vote for NAFTA Expansion" at: http://tinyurl.com/29rovu

Obama is the first presidential candidate to officially declare his/her support for the NAFTA expansion moving through the Congress. His announcement is not necessarily surprising, considering he was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Hamilton Project -- a Wall Street front group working to DRIVE A WEDGE between Democrats and organized LABOR on globalization issues. His announcement comes just days after a Wall Street Journal poll found strong bipartisan opposition to lobbyist-written NAFTA-style trade policies. Clinton and Obama vote for Peru NAFTA deal at: http://tinyurl.com/2qn59q

Vote for Barack Obama if you want to, but please do it with your eyes open and with the knowledge that Rupert Murdoch -- possibly the worst corporate media CEO around -- has endorsed Obama and is using all the resources of his media empire to help Obama and destroy Hillary Clinton (one has to wonder what Rupert Murdoch hopes to gain from an Obama presidency and fears from a Clinton presidency). And bear in mind that Obama chose as his senate "mentor" the loathsome Joe Lieberman, whose gleefulness in voting with the Republicans and against the Democrats made Lieberman (at the time Obama chose him as his mentor) one of the most despised Democrats in the senate. When Barack Obama had the chance to vote against NAFTA, he voted, instead, to expand NAFTA.

And, Obama voted FOR the Oman Free Trade Agreement. (H.R. 3045, 7/28/05; S. 3569, 6/29/06). OBAMA: "I believe that expanding trade and breaking down barriers between countries is good for our economy and for our security, for American consumers and American workers.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/issues_trade.cfm

BOTH Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted NO on implementing CAFTA for Central America free-trade. (Jul 2005) Americans need to deal with facts, not pipe-dreams. In Peru Trade Vote, Senate Democrats Break With Base, Dismiss Widespread Public Opposition to More-of-the-Same Trade Policy and Join GOP to Vote for Another Bush NAFTA Expansion Pushed by Corporations. Seven of Nine Senate Freshmen Democrats Oppose Expanding NAFTA to Peru

Statement of Lori M. Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Division

Public Citizen - Common Dreams - Dec. 4, 2007
WASHINGTON - December 4 - Although not one U.S. labor, environmental, Latino, consumer, faith or family farm group supported the Peru free trade agreement (FTA), a majority of Senate Democrats today broke with their base, dismissed widespread public opposition to more-of-the-same trade policy and joined Republicans to deliver another Bush NAFTA expansion to the large corporations pushing this deal.
The debate in the Senate contrasts with that in the House of Representatives last month. There was little focus on the Peru NAFTA expansion deal in the Senate, but in the House an intense, multi-month debate resulted in a majority of House Democrats, including 12 of 18 House committee chairs, voting against the Peru pact and signaling that it is not an acceptable model for future trade agreements.
The breakdown of this vote vividly demonstrates two phenomena: the distance between most senators and the American public on trade issues, and the depth of the American public's negative opinion about NAFTA-style trade deals. All but two of nine Democratic freshmen senators who recently campaigned extensively in their states opposed the Peru NAFTA expansion today. Most of the Democratic presidential candidates oppose it, including Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut.

In contrast to most of the Democratic presidential candidates who oppose the Peru NAFTA expansion, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois support it. Clinton and Obama's support for the Peru FTA – after BOTH opposed the 2005 Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which contained identical provisions and now campaign against NAFTA in Iowa, should make voters wonder just what sort of trade policy Clinton and Obama really support. None of the senators running for president voted today, although all four have issued public statements taking positions on the Peru pact. Read the rest at: http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1204-20.htm