While discussing who John Edwards supporters would vote for on CNN, Carl Bernstein made an interesting statement about Hillary’s take on NAFTA.
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Bernstein: Hillary Clinton’s economics, the ones she preached to her husband in the White House are much closer to John Edwards then 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.
Bob Somerby had some choice words for Bernstein over his Clinton book so I’m not taking this as fact or anything close to it, but I never heard it before so it made me curious.
Filed Under: Bill Clinton, CNN, Hillary Clinton
Tags: Hillary Clinton
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And where are the facts?
Can’t Hillary speak for herself on this particular issue?
Has she?
How about letting Edwards supporters decide where they want to take their vote, rather than paid political pundits?
No it is true. On two scores. One she did argue against the politics of compromise. Second, the country is much different that in 1994. The Democratic Party is more to the left as is the country. There is a shift going on. Hillary might be more liberal than it appears at first glance.
But gawrsh, Hillary=Bush!!!1!1!!! So all the Paulians and Naderites say. How could it not be 100,000,000% true?
I did not know she was against NAFTA.
I think she should run ads on McInsane’s answer to a question about the economy last night.
He totally blew that question.
Lollimom @ 2:
Traditionally, its more polite to ask the husband about these things.
Uh-huh. And this story about being closer to Edwards’ view comes out a day after he drops out. Hmm.
and you’re all scared of Nader?
Why hasn’t she come out against NAFTA?
Because she’s bought and sold!
I can’t wait for Bloomberg and Nader to shake this race up (and make all of you cry).
For what it is worth, Sally Bedell Smith relate the same story:
“Sally Bedell Smith: There are countless examples throughout the book. Although she held no official position of executive leadership, Hillary had a role in crucial domestic and foreign policy decisions. To name just a few: in 1993 she talked her husband out of getting involved in the war in Bosnia because she thought it would be like Vietnam and would harm the chances for her health care plan. Two years later, after being secretly tutored by a State Department official, she became an advocate for the use of force in Bosnia because she feared Bill’s inaction was harming him politically. In the summer of 1993 she tried to scuttle NAFTA and had to be dissuaded by Mickey Kantor, the trade representative and a longtime Clinton friend, who told her that Bill needed a bipartisan political victory.
WaPo
That clip actually makes me feel better towards Hillary now that Edwards is out of the race. Now if she or Obama would come out with a strong stand on diplomacy with Iran and a more fair and balanced stance on the Israeli Palestinian conflict…one of of them might win this 55 year old soccer mom over. I am not holding my breath
Justin RAimando’s latest on treason
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12276.
come on !shes said nafta was allright and all nafta needed was just a little tweeking, WTFS that mean? nafta under clinton or obamas going on as planned , jobs and companys heading for china and next stop tibet ! thiers no honor among thieves!
Bullshit. It’s also insulting to Edwards supporters to assume that one unsubstantiated rumor spread by a has been will sway them.
No, I’m not an Edwards Supporter™
Did Hubby Bill force her to vote to authorize war in Iraq?
Mike @ 9:
Ooohh…the ultimate corporatist Bloomberg & ‘former consumer advocate - GOP funded’ Nader…
Sorry, the Republicans will already have a ticket….the only people that will cry if they run are the people making less than 250,000/yr
Okay, so she was against NAFTA and only got behind it when she saw the damage it did to the point only weeks ago she was talking it up?
This from a woman who was silent about unions while on the Wal Mart board. She talks about 35 years of change. What kind of change? Union busting?
And now today a story broke in the New York Times about her husband having shady dealings with a Canadian businessman
And just this week she spit in the face of all democrats by going to FL and playing a beauty contest there
This site is so pro Hillary it is just plain wrong. DailyKos is much more fair.
anon @ 1:
Facts? You mean CNN deals with facts?
Haven’t seen Clinton trying to repeal NAFTA, so she’s apparently fine with “Republican economics.” And maybe NAFTA’s not so very Republican, after all, if most or all of Congress is ignoring it.
Kathleen @ 11:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/.....amp;page=1
Hillary was silent while Wal Mart busted unions. And check out the NY Times today for a story about yet another scandal with her husband.
Mike @ 9:
Oh, pul-leeze…I live in NY, and I like Mike Bloomberg, but I think his presidential candidacy would be, to paraphrase the late Norman Mailer, “one collective dead ass”…
I can’t really look at Bernstein…he seems to have morphed into a terrier-like young frankenstein, scary Desi Arnaz monster….he should be limited to radio only.
John @ 14:
No, she was fooled by George Bush into voting for it.
All hail to The Queen !…c’mon C & L , stop pimping for Billary (or at least officially endorse her).
Nader/Edwards 08!
Hillary will definitely come out strongly against NAFTA …
… just as soon as the focus groups say it’s safe to.
And that, coincidentally, is when we’ll find out she’s always been opposed to NAFTA.
Hmmm, well if she was against it, is she still against it? And if she is against it why wouldn’t she say she is against it and always was against it. It seems to me that she could use issues like this to separate herself from her husband’s administration…and it also seems that pulling back from the “forward to the past” campaign might help her. So is she just “standing by her man”? Or what?
She was for the war before she was against it.
She was against NAFTA before she was for it.
My head is going to explode!!!
If she really wants the Floridians vote to count she should request another Caucass at a later date that can be counted… have a fair fight with Obama.
If you want to see an example of how NAFTA works, rent Bordertown, based on a true story. If free trade causes this kind of misery it needs to be removed from our system. Free trade is not fair trade. These people working in these factories are slaves.
Number 1: She lost the argument (presuming there was an argument) with a man who should have known this was not good for the country.
Number 2: She has leaned as hard as anyone to the right ONCE IN OFFICE.
You wanna believe words or actions?
There’s no argument that anyone can make that will turn most Edwards supporters to Hillary supporters.
Only Obama can screw up the support Edwards voters will bring mostly his way. Woo us, baby. Don’t screw us.
Uncle Jack @ 19:
I live in NYC, and I don’t like Mike Bloomberg. But he’ll open this race up and give voice to angry people on both sides.
I know how much C&L hates that.
At last . I fanally heard someone from msnbc mention something about the bill clinton library and who its donators are. And this is the biggest reason of all that I cant vote for Hillary. They are in the back pockets of too many of wrong people. And the republicans know that, and they are hoping and praying she will be the nominee. please keep asking these questions, or as democrats we are all going to be sorry for choosing her in the long run.
I’ve heard that before. But the part that gets left out is that Hillary was later convinced that, on balance, NAFTA would be good. But her first instincts were against NAFTA. However, she did KNOW that welfare reform was horrible, but caved in order to win re-election. The Clintons are bonafide progressives. This gets forgotten because of the rough political terrain in the 90’s. Their first instincts are populist ones.
p.s: I’m supporting Obama, mostly because I cannot abide their tactics.
I am against NAFTA and always have been. Foreign trade, indeed.
BTW in one of Bill Clintons speaches while campaigning for Hillary, he said “NAFTA was a mistake”. He should have listened to her. After all, she didn’t fall off a turnip truck last week. Hillary has plenty of smarts and she won’t back down. I kinda like her. Tough broad.
And once again, the slam Hillary bandwagon strips a once-respected journalist of their own credibility. Hillary is a powerful and effective political player. She may not always have the best position on an issue, but she isn’t even half as sleazy as the multitude of media whores who love to try and take her down.
Bernstein knows no more about Hillary than anyone else in the mainstream press corps. He just sees this as a means of promoting his own irrelevant self. It’s easy to bash Hillary because the right have trotted out the same old lies time and time again, creating a very strong narrative, facts be damned. All you need to do is repeat it with some nuance here and there, despite evidence and testimony to the contrary, and it will be believed and sold for great profit.
Bernstein is just another so-called journalist who rose to prominence when journalism was a profession, but decided to pimp his legacy in today’s journalism which is strictly about entertainment and nothing more.
You should learn a little from your old colleague Woodward, Carl, rather than compete strictly for profit’s sake.
budda @ 16:
Please stop with the pro Hillary or pro Obama stuff.
Mike @ 9:
Yup - bring Nader in to give the election to the Republicans, again. Just what we need.
Clinton and Obama are corporate shills…but they’re our corporate shills.
If Hillary Clinton would cancel NAFTA (and she can without any need for congressional or senate authorization - Dennis Kucinich has proven this with George Bush’s cancelling of the Kyoto Treaty all by himself) then I MIGHT (and I said MIGHT) consider voting for her.
berstein is, obvisouly, in the journalist hall-of-fame, but this sounds a bit wishy washy for him to report. it sounds like that is how hillary recounted the episode recently, in the current nafta-sucks atmosphere.
so, until i see proof positive that she refutes neoliberalism, i am going to assume that this is yet more political posturing, after the fact, by hillary.
and, *ahem*, what about this:
“In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers….
“An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions….
“The tapes show Clinton in the role of a loyal company woman. “I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” she said at a June 1990 stockholders meeting.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/.....amp;page=1
wal mart, the small town killer, the destroyer of main street, defended by hillary, “I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else”… is she still really proud?
ABC News: Hillary Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions - (ABC News)
Plus she might even get Dennis Kucinich’s endorsement…
35 living-abomination:
you need to check your facts, your recounting of history… why? b/c you seemed a bit confused.
anon @ 1:
Exactly.
Samson- @ 38:
Oh, God get off it. Look at the label of the garment you are wearing right now. Tell what country it was made in…Then just STFU. We are all guilty.
Slightly off-topic, but in Al Franken’s “Big, Fat Idiot”, he recounts how when he was being interviewed by Bob Woodward about John Belushi for Woodward’s “Wired” biography, Woodward asked him if he had ever seen Belushi do cocaine. Al told him “Just once-with Carl Bernstein”.
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