The Daily Background

Hillary Clinton recently said “Shame on you, Barack Obama!” because one of his campaign’s direct mail items in Ohio quoted Newsday which said she felt NAFTA wold be a boon to US workers. True– she didn’t actually use the word “boon” itself– that was Newsday’s characterization of her feelings about it.

Hillary Clinton said on February 19th, 2008 in Ohio: “My opponent has taken to attacking me on NAFTA. The fact is neither of us were in the Senate at the time and I’ve long been a critic of the shortcomings of NAFTA.”

By noting that she wasn’t in the Senate when NAFTA was passed and signed by her husband in 1993, she makes it seem as though she would have opposed it or something. Her are her own words on NAFTA over the years:

1996: Hillary said “I think NAFTA is proving its worth.”

1997: Hillary went to Mexico and proclaimed “NAFTA is working, working for you and working for the American people… We must accelerate the pace of these efforts, to reach more people and more communities.”

1998: Hillary went before the World Economic Forum and lauded multinational corporations for mounting “a very effective business effort in the U.S. on behalf of Nafta.”

2002: Hillary went before the DLC and listed NAFTA as one of her husband’s greatest accomplishments.

2003: Hillary wrote in her book Living History that she actively supported pushing forward with NAFTA while in the Clinton Administration: “Creating a free trade zone in North America—the largest free trade zone in the world—would expand U.S. exports, create jobs and ensure that our economy was reaping the benefits, not the burdens, of globalization. Although unpopular with labor unions, expanding trade opportunities was an important administration goal. The question was whether the White House could focus its energies on two legislative campaigns at once [NAFTA and health care]. I argued that we could and that postponing health care would further weaken its chances.”

2004: Hillary argued to reporters, “I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America.”

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog