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NAFTA, from a horse’s mouth [UPDATED x3]

By SusanUnPC on February 26, 2008 at 11:38 AM in Barack Obama, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, NAFTA

UPDATE: See this video of the Machinists’ Union president describing how Sen. Obama screwed Illinois union members who worked for Maytag while giving them a big speech about helping them and taking their hard-earned money — but that Obama then took money from Maytag owners and never spoke up about the workers to the owners. (When the fuck are people going to wake up about this bamboozler?) UPDATE x2: “Interesting tone from CNBC about Obama.” UPDATE x3: “UPDATE – Obama Continues Misleading Attacks on Trade, Former Clinton Advisor Confirms that Hillary was critical of NAFTA.”

Original: David Gergen, on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 last night, second hour:

If I could just add one other postscript, Anderson, on NAFTA; I was actually there in the Clinton White House during the NAFTA fight. And I must tell you, Hillary Clinton was extremely unenthusiastic about NAFTA. She — and I think that’s putting it mildly. I’m not sure how she objected to all the provisions of it. She just didn’t see why that White House had to go do that fight.

She was very unhappy about it, wanted to move on to health care. So I do think there’s some justification for her camp saying, you know, she’s never been a great backer of NAFTA.

COOPER: Interesting.

BORGER: But it did have to do with health care, David, right? Because health care was her baby and NAFTA was the president’s baby.

GERGEN: Well, that’s right. As you remember, Gloria, Bill Clinton, I thought it was one of his most courageous decisions. I’m a NAFTA backer. But he had to take on the labor unions. He had to take on a lot of her Democratic constituencies that she wanted to keep firm for the health care fight. So there was a lot about NAFTA she didn’t really like, but she had to keep her mouth shut because, after all, he was the president.

It’s interesting to note that Gergen, a “NAFTA backer,” spoke out on what he witnessed firsthand: That she was opposed to NAFTA.

This jives with the biographical works of Carl Bernstein and others. From Crooks & Liars, “Carl Bernstein: Hillary Clinton and NAFTA“:

Bernstein: Hillary Clinton’s economics, the ones she preached to her husband in the White House are much closer to John Edwards than you would think. She argued with Bill Clinton when she was First Lady, her husband, she said ‘Bill, you are doing Republican economics when you are doing NAFTA.’ She was against NAFTA. And if she would somehow come out and tell the real story of what she fought for in the White House and failed in a big argument with her husband she would end up moving much closer to those Edwards followers. (Video at Crooks & Liars)

See also: Alegre’s article here, “Now he’s lying about NAFTA.”

And see this: “Obama: “I Believe In Free Trade.”