Real Time: 02-22-08 (Matt Taibbi Reports from Youngstown, Ohio)

Taibbi: “In a place where you’d think people would be more critical of anyone who’s ever supported a free trade agreement, Hillary Clinton comes in here tonight and she campaigns against the same agreement she’s voted for consistently ever since she’s been a senator… and the crowd ate it up. So, what does that tell you about presidential campaigning in this country?”

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to find out more about this “four point plan” to “fix NAFTA” she’s disingenuously touting these days in the rust belt towns of Ohio. But unfortunately you can’t find it on her website. There’s nothing under the “Issues” section covering this topic at all and the “four point plan” is nowhere to be seen. However, there is a press release slamming Obama’s “misleading” fliers (which aren’t at all really) that cites one critical remark she made back in 2000: “What happened to NAFTA I think was we inherited an agreement that we didn’t get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion. I think the NAFTA agreement was flawed. The problem is we have to go back and figure out how we are going to fix that.” “Inherited”… Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. Yeah, well technically that’s correct, but talk about misleading.

The fact of the matter is that Clinton (a former director of Wal-Mart, bear in mind) has been an enthusiastic supporter of NAFTA, and has been at the forefront of efforts to promote the elimination of trade barriers (she’s voted for every free trade agreement except CAFTA) around the world. So what exactly does she mean when she says “get[ting] everything we should have got”? By the way, Obama is no better. He too wants to “fix” NAFTA by some unspecified means.