AP on Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama past Nafta statements

[tpsbmam]

I personally call it a guilty draw.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_trade_fact_check_4&printer=1;_ylt=AjWdIheGN_dxJgymtuvAWx9h24cA

In 1996, she said the trade deal with Mexico and Canada was giving U.S. workers a chance to compete. "That's what a free and fair trade agreement like NAFTA is all about," she said. "I think NAFTA is proving its worth."


In a speech to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council in 2002, the New York senator said this of her husband's record:

"The economic recovery plan stands first and foremost as a testament to both good ideas and political courage. National service. The Brady bill. Family leave. NAFTA. Investment in science and technology. New markets....

"All of these came out of some very fundamental ideas about what would work. The results speak for themselves." It was one of several occasions when she highlighted the trade deal among Bill Clinton's achievements.

Her campaign says listing her husband's accomplishments isn't the same as favoring them and her 1996 speech was noting NAFTA's undeniable benefits to Texas, where she delivered that address.

In his 2004 Illinois Senate campaign, Obama said the U.S. should pursue more deals such as NAFTA. The Associated Press reported then that Obama had spoken of enormous benefits having accrued to his state from NAFTA, while adding that he also called for more aggressive trade protections for U.S. workers.

That nuance was lost when he declared in February that "I don't think NAFTA has been good for Americans, and I never have."