Word: nafta
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...Obama's losses to Hillary Clinton in the March 4 Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island primaries were bookended by incidents involving Obama policy advisors, Austan Goolsbee and Samantha Power, who became enmeshed in controversies involving some of the most significant issues of the campaign: NAFTA, the Iraq War, and Obama's professed rejection of negative campaign tactics...
...Goolsbee controversy occurred first, and the facts remain somewhat in dispute. What is now acknowledged is that Goolsbee met with Canadian diplomats at their consulate in Chicago and discussed international trade, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A Canadian government memo written after the meeting suggested that...
...Goolsbee had downplayed Obama's campaign trail rhetoric decrying NAFTA's effect on the American economy, saying that as President Obama would not seek to overturn or radically reshape the agreement, a deal that is viewed as a good thing by American's neighbors to the north. After first denying the meeting took place, the Obama campaign claimed that the written account mischaracterized Goolsbee's conversation and that there was no cynical difference between the candidate's campaign position on NAFTA and his true intentions should he become President...
...Clinton campaign mercilessly flogged the issue in the days leading up to the voting last Tuesday, not only suggesting that Obama could not be trusted on NAFTA specifically, but calling into question Obama's candor generally. It is unclear whether this issue played a role in Clinton's March 4 success, particularly in Ohio, but it certainly exposed a side of Obama that the public has rarely seen: wavering, caviling and possibly equivocating...
Over the last three days, Hillary Clinton has obviously thrown a lot at you. The kitchen sink, as you say, NAFTA, [controversial real estate developer Antoin] Rezko, 3 a.m. call. What hurt the most? You know, the truth is, in terms of what happened, in the last week, we were down 20 in all these states, and so we were working on closing the gap, but it's not clear to me that even if things were perfect that we could've entirely closed that gap. Partly because she's a very vigorous campaigner, and they had the resources...