Hillary Clinton on NAFTA: "you can go back and look at what I've said consistently"

[BernieforPres2016]

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/21/401123124/a-timeline-of-hillary-clintons-evolution-on-trade

<Her husband brokered and passed the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, in 1993. The move irked labor unions, which are key to organizational efforts in Democratic campaigns. As first lady, in 1996, Clinton trumpeted NAFTA as "proving its worth.">

<Two years later, she went to Davos, Switzerland, where she spoke at the World Economic Forum and thanked businesses for lobbying for the agreement. She also criticized them for not making a stronger push to give her husband fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals and limit congressional power to alter those deals.>

<during her campaign for NY Senate 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.>

<2004: "I think on balance NAFTA has been good for New York and America, but I also think that there are a number of areas where we're not dealt with in an upfront way in dealing with our friend to the north, Canada, which seems to be able to come up with a number of rationales for keeping New York agricultural products out of Canada.">

<2007: "NAFTA was inherited by the Clinton Administration. I believe in the general principles it represented, but what we have learned is that we have to drive a tougher bargain. Our market is the market that everybody wants to be in. We should quit giving it away so willy-nilly.>

<2008: "You know, I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning. I didn't have a public position on it, because I was part of the administration, but when I started running for the Senate, I have been a critic. I've said it was flawed. ... you don't have all the record because you can go back and look at what I've said consistently.>

[dchill]

1. We'll I believe her, don't you?

Consistent sawtooth graph: up, down, up, down...

Consistent.

[Press Virginia]

2. She consistently used the acronym when

talking about it at least that's something positive

[ViseGrip]

3. None of these trade agreements are about jobs! They are about changing laws for corporations.

They make it better for them. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

I, don't need to see what Hillary has said. I remember the job market growing up, and how far wages went. We are at a third world status, with so many jobs now anywhere from 9-12 an hour, now a 'contract job'. That is employers skirting employee taxes. Slave labor.

No, I don't need to go back and see what she has said. We are living the nightmare.

[BernieforPres2016]

4. People who believe her when she says she is now against the TPP need to know what she has said

in the past to decide if they think she's believable now.

[SheilaT]

5. One wonders if she's actually suffering from dementia.

That could explain that she simply can't remember what she said twenty-some years ago.

Plus, she's old enough not to be a child of the Internet, and so does not fully understand to what extent stuff does not go away or become difficult to research.

[azmom]

6. My daughter just said to me the other

day that Hillary must not know how the internet works. LOL

[SheilaT]

9. Interesting.

There are likewise plenty of stories out there about how she didn't know how to use a computer or access email other than on her BlackBerry (which is why she was so unwilling to give it up even when explicitly told by the State Department that they weren't secure and couldn't be made secure) when she first became SoS, which is to me mind-boggling.

I remember when I first acquired an email account, and being rather befuddled that I could access it from something other than my home computer. But I did learn how it worked, and now (assuming I remember my password which is automatically entered on my home computer) I can access my email anywhere. And often do.

But yeah, this whole business with the unsecure BlackBerry, the home server, the classified emails, all show a combination of not understanding how the internet works and an arrogant willingness to flout very specific laws and instructions.

[azmom]

12. I think she's used to the old ways of

campaigning and doesn't understand you can't do it that way anymore. Not with YouTube.

She probably has yes persons all around her that kiss her ass and won't tell her what she needs to hear.

[SheilaT]

14. Absolutely.

I'm all of two years younger than she is, and I can be technologically challenged at times, and I'm frequently express extreme gratitude to young people who help me out -- my own sons, one specific younger friend, the very nice people at the AT&T store and Best Buy, and so on.

People need to understand that Hillary was a practicing attorney back when she would have had a secretary and/or a paralegal and would rarely have done much of her own typing. Depending on exactly how savvy her law firm in Arkansas was, the sec'y/paralegal might have had some sort of word processor some time in the 1980's, but my best guess is that she probably didn't use one. Then she became First Lady, moved into the White House, and had a whole lot more support staff taking care of all of her day-to-day needs. Including, I bet, checking email for her. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she didn't finally start checking and writing her own sometime after becoming a Senator. Which means she's even farther behind the tech curve than a lot of people her age.

I do have sympathy, as I know how befuddled I can get with the constant changes, but I'm not a Secretary of State and I'm not dealing with classified information every day of my life.

As much as I adore Bernie and absolutely want him to be our next President, we will all be better off when the first Millennials come into power. And it will happen. The oldest of them are about 33 at this point, so the youngest elected officials out there are of that generation.

[CoffeeCat]

7. Ok, Hillary. I did what you said. I went back and looked what you said consistently.

Are you happy Hillary? I now have motion sickness, vertigo and whiplash.

[ibegurpard]

8. Why does she keep saying that?

She knows people can actually do it right?

[BernieforPres2016]

11. No, she thinks we are all dupes

Particularly the young people.

[winter is coming]

15. Perhaps they think she's so authoritative that no one would bother to check up on her. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

10. LOL

[JBoy]

16. When she's held every position on every issue,

She can honestly say that she's "said that before". It's the "consistently" part that gets her into trouble.

[delrem]

17. When you're paid that much to say your lines,

you don't have to think much about the meaning of what you say.
The only point is to get the lines across effectively.
And to keep on winning.

Very much like Trump.

So it's no wonder that she doesn't remember what her "positions" are.
She's got assistants to handle inconsistencies.

[delrem]

18. That isn't so much an evolution as...

what happens to a fresh out of the water fish, plopped on the bank,
flopping awhile and then setting out in the sun and the rain.
Setting out there like a trap for an unwary youngster trekking along the stream
who sees it, investigates, and recoils at the boiling pile of maggots,
then wanders on thinking "holy shit!"