The NAFTA Gaff Revisited: The Audacity of Hillary Clinton

by Jack Random
Imagine the smile that curled the lips of Senator Hillary Clinton when, on the eve of the Ohio and Texas primaries, she came across a story from the Canadian press that her opponent had delivered a duplicitous message on NAFTA to the Canadian government:  We are going to play some political games with NAFTA but don’t worry, we are not serious.  

Clinton knew full well that it was in fact her people that had contacted the conservative, pro NAFTA, pro Free Trade government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to deliver that same message:  We intend to play political games but it is only for show.  We will not act.  We will not renegotiate NAFTA to include the rights of labor.  

 

Imagine the audacity of Hillary Clinton as she stepped to the microphones to deliver these words:  

• “If you come to Ohio and you …give speeches that are very critical of NAFTA…and then we find out that your chief economic advisor has gone to a foreign government and basically done the old wink-wink:  ‘Don’t pay attention, this just political rhetoric’ I think that raises some serious questions.”  

Addressing the media, she issued a challenge:  

• “I would ask you to look at this story and substitute my name for Senator Obama’s and see what you would do with this story…  Just ask yourself [what you would do] if some of my advisors had been having private meetings with foreign governments.”  

It turns out that Senator Clinton’s challenge was more than hypothetical.  It turns out that Ian Brodie, Prime Minister Harper’s Chief of Staff, revealed to a room full of Canadian reporters that someone in Clinton’s staff had contacted the government to assure them that the electoral promise to demand a renegotiation of NAFTA was nothing but political posturing.  

(See “NAFTA Gate Began with Remark from Harper’s Chief of Staff” by Alexander Panetta, The Globe and Mail, March 6, 2008.)  

Somehow, Canadian TV correspondent Tom Clark managed to reverse the story by replacing the name of Clinton with that of Obama just in time for the Ohio-Texas primaries.  

For the first time in my life, I am beginning to feel a sense of animosity toward our neighbors to the north.  As the story unfolds, it appears that the Canadians have not only seen fit to interfere in our electoral process but they did so by delivering a deliberate deception at the most critical juncture of our primary process.  

What appeared to be a devastating indictment of Barack Obama’s credibility on one of the most critical issues of the campaign was in fact an indictment of Hillary Clinton.  

Now the word is that Prime Minister Harper will kill a proposed investigation into this incident.  If the Prime Minister is a praying man, he had better pray that his deception works for if Obama prevails despite him, this act of profound treachery will tax Obama’s ability to forgive and forget.  

I believe that Obama can turn this unfortunate incident into a positive if he uses it to erase all doubt concerning his position on Fair Trade.  He needs to come down hard on the destructive policies of globalization and this is a golden opportunity to do so.  

Nevertheless, the overriding lesson of this scandalous chain of events is that Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted.  

With a straight face, she lied about her opposition to NAFTA.  With a straight face, she accused her opponent of betraying the American people when in fact it was her all along.  


How can we believe her on any issue of importance to the American people?  

In her zeal and ambition to become the first woman president, she has become the same kind of lying, deceiving politician that has reigned in Washington for far too long.  

Jazz.  


JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).  THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB, INCLUDING THE ALBION MONITOR, BELLACIAO, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS AND PACIFIC FREE PRESS.  SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.  

 

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