I have no doubt that both these stories from yesterday will find their way to bloggers and pundits in their respective camps and used to smear the other candidate.
Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain both pounced on the comments Obama made last weekend at a fundraiser in San Francisco.
Video of the fundraiser, which was closed to the press, surfaced as Obama was campaigning in Indiana, trying to highlight issues of concern to working-class voters, such as job losses and rising mortgage foreclosures.
“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama, an Illinois senator, said.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he said…
Inserted from <Reuters>
Hillary Clinton spoke at a November 1993 NAFTA meeting at which 120 were scheduled to attend; participants described it as a NAFTA cheering session capped by remarks from the first lady when the push was at its peak to get the deal approved. Two at the meeting, representing textile and apparel importers, told ABC News that Hillary Clinton was the highlight of the “100 percent pro-NAFTA event” and expressed not a “hint of waffling” on the deal.
In 1996, she said the trade deal with Mexico and Canada was giving U.S. workers a chance to compete. “That’s what a free and fair trade agreement like NAFTA is all about,” she said. “I think NAFTA is proving its worth.”
In a speech to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council in 2002, the New York senator said this of her husband’s record:
“The economic recovery plan stands first and foremost as a testament to both good ideas and political courage. National service. The Brady bill. Family leave. NAFTA. Investment in science and technology. New markets….
“All of these came out of some very fundamental ideas about what would work. The results speak for themselves.” It was one of several occasions when she highlighted the trade deal among Bill Clinton’s achievements.
Her campaign says listing her husband’s accomplishments isn’t the same as favoring them and her 1996 speech was noting NAFTA’s undeniable benefits to Texas, where she delivered that address…
Inserted from <Yahoo News>
On the former, perhaps Obama is insensitive to small-town, middle class workers. On the other hand, perhaps his comments were identifying with and justifying the frustration that they rightly feel.
On the latter, perhaps Hillary is lying about her former support for NAFTA. On the other, perhaps she was submerging her own view to that of the President as claimed.
The interpretations of both stories depend upon the direstion of applied spin.
As this campaign moves forward with little hope for resolution in the near future, the most positive thing Democrats can do is highlight the plusses of their personal choices and reserve their vitriol for McConJob.
Cross-posted from Politics Plus
