(Hillary) Clinton's 1993 NAFTA Meeting

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

One interesting event in Sen. Hillary Clinton's just-released schedules from the 1990s comes on Nov. 10 1993, when the former first lady was to serve as the closing act during a briefing on NAFTA, the trade agreement she now assails.

11:30 am -
11:45 am

NAFTA BRIEFING DROP-BY
Room 450, OEOB
CLOSED PRESS

Two attendees of that closed-door briefing, neither of whom are affiliated with any campaign, describe that event for ABC News. It was a room full of women involved in international trade. David Gergen served as a sort of master of ceremonies as various women members of the Cabinet talked up NAFTA, which had yet to pass Congress.

"It wasn’t a drop-by it was organized around her participation," said one attendee. "Her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA and what a good thing it would be for the economy. There was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time. Folks were pleased that she came by. If this is a still a question about what Hillary's position when she was First Lady, she was totally supportive if NAFTA.

That first attendee recalls that the First Lady's office in the East Wing put together "the invitation list, who was invited authorizations and all that stuff."

And what is this attendee's response to Clinton today distancing herself from NAFTA? "For people who worked hard to pass NAFTA and who support the importance of markets opening for the economy in the long term, they're very upset. A number of the women who were there are very upset. You need to have some integrity in your position. The Clintons when Bill Clinton was president took a moderate position on trade for Democrats. For her to repudiate that now seems pretty phony."



Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/clintons-1993-n.html

---

Feeling scammed Ohio?

[Genevieve]

1. k

[Liberal Veteran]

2. I'm sure she was working behind the scene of behind of scene to voice her concerns.

[fascisthunter]

3. I Guess She Does Have Experience... in Screwing the Average American

can you imagine what else she is hiding?

[OhioChick]

11. Can't Even Fathom. nt

[anonymeme]

54. You Base This Unbelievably Biased Post on the Following Nugget From That "News" Piece?!

You Base This Unbelievably Biased Post on the Following Nugget From That "News" Piece?!

From the following tidbit of info you were able to extract that Hillary pushed NAFTA?!

"The former first lady's records showed first lady Clinton worked on behalf of the accord.

Among the thousands of details of daily life for Clinton, there was a November 10, 1993, entry -- a "NAFTA Briefing drop-by," in Room 450 of the executive office building next door to the White House, closed to the news media.

Approximately 120 people were expected to attend the briefing, and Clinton was to be introduced by White House aide Alexis Herman for brief remarks concluding the program"

You got all that stuff you spouted from THAT?!

OMIGOD! Are you a mind reader, too?

[TankLV]

59. the obamabots are getting pretty pathetic, aren't they...

[polpilot]

40. Pro-War, Pro-NAFTA Hillary. Wasn't just the interns getting screwed.

[martymar64]

77. Don't forget pro-cluster bomb and pro-outsourcing

:evilfrown:

[msongs]

4. oh dear, it OMITS the names of the alleged attendees. now there's a shocker nt

[Liberal Veteran]

8. Hillary Cheney?

:scared:

[blm]

5. Hillary's been a phony on everything she supported - she and Bill made SURE Bush was supported

on his decisions on terrorism and Iraq war. Bill had access to information about Iraq that no senate or congressional Dem could have, and he used that privilege to urge DC Dems to stand with Bush.

Only after Lieberman lost HIS primary race did Hillary and Bill start adjusting her position on Iraq for her planned primary run.

[Baby Snooks]

18. Just your typical American Republicrat Family...

The Bushes and the Clintons. The adopted children. Who have done their new father proud. But of course the Hillary Clinton supporters will deny that. Why, she's as Democratic as Bill Clinton is. And Bill Clinton is as Democratic as, well, gee, I don't know. Who is he as Democratic as?

They were groomed just the way George W Bush was groomed. They are Republicrats. Oligarchists. George W Bush didn't steal the presidency from Al Gore. Bill Clinton did. In 1992.

A picture is worth a thousand words. And how many thousands of pictures do we have at this point of Bill Clinton and George HW Bush smiling and just having a good old time? What is it they are always smiling about anyway? How much money they just made off something no one knows about?

[Megahurtz]

75. Gee I wonder why....

:sarcasm:

[Zhade]

6. This was after her husband broke his campaign promise to include worker protections in NAFTA, right?

Such a betrayal of workers worldwide, I could scream.

Looks like she lied. Again.

#5

[gabeana]

7. FRom the NY Times

"The documents offer no support for her claims, made during the presidential campaign, that she helped to negotiate the Irish peace accords or facilitated the flow of refugees in the Balkans. Neither is there evidence in them to back up her claim that she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first legislation Mr. Clinton signed as president. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, sailed through Congress and landed on Mr. Clinton’s desk 10 days after he was inaugurated. Indeed, on the day Mr. Clinton signed the bill into law, Feb. 5, 1993, there is no indication on that day’s calendar that she attended."

[Liberal Veteran]

9. And I thought Clintons were genetically incapable of telling a falsehood.

[RamboLiberal]

10. From WPost, Newsweek & CNN - Snippets

In the schedules for Clinton's foreign travels, it was difficult to discern the foreign policy substance that might have been involved. A week-long trip to Africa in early 1997, for example, consisted largely of tours of schools, clinics and tourist sites. Every stop featured a 15- to 45-minute "courtesy visit" with the head of government (usually including the leader's wife and Chelsea Clinton) but with no mention of substantive foreign policy issues. Yet such trips form much of the basis for the Clinton campaign's claim that she has interacted with more than 80 foreign leaders.

Although the first lady did not spend much time with heads of state on such trips, she did meet with community leaders, activists, entrepreneurs who were starting businesses with small loans, people rebuilding villages and others with stories to tell. She met with victims of the Rwandan genocide and listened to their accounts. Although the encounters were earnest and informative, they did not appear to involve negotiating or driving policy.

Other trips seemed to be practically devoid of substance. On a visit to Japan in early July 1993 during a meeting of the Group of Seven -- a gathering of leaders from seven industrialized countries -- the schedule provided a sharp contrast to the previous months that Clinton had spent working on health-care reform, attending dozens of meetings on the subject and traveling throughout the United States to make her case.

In Japan, the schedule shows, she was shepherded around with ambassadors' wives and other G-7 spouses to museums, gardens, theaters, dinners and teas. The only policy item on the schedule was a visit to a Tokyo incineration plant for an environmental lecture, and she was taken there "via spousal bus," according to the documents. A subsequent stop in South Korea featured more of the same.

-----

(And to be fair they did find this of substance)

Somewhat more substantive, the records show, was her apparently deep involvement in early 1997 in the Clinton administration's financial bailout plan for Washington, which included a federal takeover of a number of local government functions. On Feb. 20, 1997, the day Bill Clinton's proposal was introduced in Congress, both she and her husband received an hour-long Oval Office briefing on the subject.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031901317.html

As a result, the schedules released Wednesday are filled with references to innocuous public ceremonies and tours and political events—surrounded by whited-out boxes of deleted material. On March 28, 1995, to pick one example, the schedule shows that Hillary Clinton landed in Lahore, Pakistan, and was "given flowers by a boy and girl dressed in traditional Pakistani clothes." Clinton then visited a village home where she was "served cold soda." On June 1, 2000, researchers will discover that Hillary Clinton flew to Waco, Texas, where she visited the "Audre & Bernard Rapoport Academy." "HRC proceeds to read 'Where the wild things Are' to approximately 71 kindergarten thru second graders," the schedule reads.

The schedule is considerably less revealing when it comes to more awkward episodes of the Clinton presidency. Consider the afternoon of March 9, 1995, when Johnny Chung, a businessman and soon-to-be-notorious Democratic Party fund-raiser, made a fateful trip to the White House carrying a campaign check for $50,000. For many critics, Chung later became a symbol of the campaign-finance abuses of the Clinton presidency, a mysterious Chinese businessman who managed to be cleared into the White House on 49 occasions. (He also later pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations and testified that a sizeable chunk of his illegal campaign cash came from a Chinese military-intelligence operative.) Hillary Clinton made a special trip to the Map Room that day so she could have her picture taken with Chung. "We handshake, and then she said, 'Welcome to the White House, my good friend'," Chung later testified, describing the encounter with Hillary Clinton. Right after that, Chung hand-delivered his $50,000 to Maggie Williams, who was the First Lady's chief of staff at the time and now manages her presidential campaign.

But Hillary Clinton's newly released calendar for that day shows no reference to Johnny Chung at all. There is listed, just as Chung testified, an "official photo" session in the Map Room. But the name of the person Hillary Clinton was having her picture taken with has been deleted on the grounds that it would be "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," according to the Archives' released record. This may seem odd, given that Chung had spoken openly, many times, about his photo op with Hillary. It may seem even odder given that just a few minutes later the First Lady had another photo session—but this time, the documents identify the person whose picture was taken. It was Eileen Collins, the astronaut.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/124271

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton got to work on health care reform within days of her arrival at the White House as first lady in 1993, newly released documents show.


The National Archives on Wednesday released 11,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's schedule as first lady.

Her first meeting on the subject came on January 23, 1993, only three days after her husband Bill Clinton's inauguration as president, and dozens of related events followed.

-----

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the trove of documents "shows she was a co-president," revealing an "extraordinary extent of meetings for an unelected official to be meeting with cabinet officials."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/19/clinton.documents/index.html

[many a good man]

12. Hillary is toast

I hate to say it, but blue collar dems hate NAFTA more than black preachers who hate America.

[N4457S]

34. Yes...

...that's right, and it's even more that way in Ohio.

My wife and I work in technology, and we went home for a week about ten winters ago. A friend of my dad's found out where I lived and he said "...yeah, you've got all our damn work down there!..." as he walked out the door.

This is gonna get NASTY, folks...especially if the Dems carry the northeast and California and then McCain carries Florida and the South and gets his 270 Electoral votes. That would tell us once and for all that our system is broken.

I have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that if it goes down that way, we could see some civil unrest.

[AzDar]

13. No more Clintons, No more Bushes. No more taking it in our tushes!!

:patriot:

[Michigan-Arizona]

28. I agree!

I've had enough of the Clinton's & the Bushes.

[ChromeFoundry]

14. Color me surprised..NOT. n/t

[Baby Snooks]

15. You mean she lied?

I am shocked. Sweet little old Hillary Clinton. A liar. How about that?

[Zhade]

26. Again?

:p

[RamboLiberal]

16. Maybe she can deliver a baby at 3AM

For example, in her January 1994 visit to Russia with her husband, her schedule is focused on events with political wives. She sat in on a birthing class at a hospital, toured a cathedral and joined prominent women in a lunch of blinis with caviar and salmon.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1723752,00.html

[karynnj]

66. No - she could only deliver a baby at 3am if she had 35 years of being married to a doctor.

[keep_it_real]

17. Just more proof that Hillary is a liar

If her lips are moving she is lying.

[Botany]

19. This should be told to all the labor, union, and factory workers in PA

She is a liar .... end of story

[N4457S]

31. You Don't Have To...

...tell the people in Pennsylvania. They know damn well what happened. I spent half my life there. I know.

I'm telling people who still live there to get as much education and/or skills as they can afford and then move south.

That being said, the central part of the state is a great retirement area.

[Diane R]

20. And this will (and should) be in television ads, in brochures, in newspapers all across PA.

[Diane R]

21. WHAT else is she hiding?!!!

[RamboLiberal]

22. I'm hoping Obama can get these attendees in a TV ad

in PA and NC!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. kicked and recommended - see this made the front home page

good job! Hope folks in PA see it in time.

[crankychatter]

25. I'm new, what does that mean?

"Kicking" and "Recommending?"

[RamboLiberal]

27. Kick is a reply which moves the thread up in list and recommending

you see at the bottom of the Original Post which is a vote to put on the Greatest Page.

Any reply moves a thread up btw.

And welcome to DU!

[ms liberty]

39. Welcome to DU, crankychatter...

Visit the Research Forum for a handy glossary that will clue you in to our lingo. We've got some DU specific slang here that can be confusing for newbies, especially when we use freeperisms!

oops! edited for capitalization.

[crankychatter]

24. The Real Deal

Transnational Corporations, Energy, Megapharm and War Profiteers brought us NAFTA under Clinton; the Iraq War under Bush and a list of of evils too long to enumerate here. They have NO loyalty to America or Americans. Instead of enjoying super-citizen status they should be considered potentially hostile foreign powers.

Clinton is a cofounder of the DLC. Centrism, as advocated by these political insiders, is a function of corruption. It is fake Centrism, NOT old school, coalition building, pragmatic politics. Everyone should know this is how they undermine Representative Government and the will of the people. When the Corporate Media deanscreams and moonbeams ANY candidate it's in direct proportion to how much money they won't take from the PACs.

Obama won't take the money and Clinton will. Anything she says is opportunistic political rhetoric, with one aim... to SCREW us.

[mod mom]

71. I was astounded that her leadership role @ the DLC was NOT BROUGHT BY MSM

while she was campaigning in Ohio. It was obvious she was intentionally distancing herself from the policies pushed by her husband, but one only had to go to the DLC website and look at their policy papers on free trade to see her connection.

I believe she targets supporters who have less time on their hand to actually research facts. She says one thing but her record says another.

BTW WHERE ARE HER TAX RETURNS?

[Bonobo]

29. Hey look, everybody! Up there! It's Reverend Wright! He's got a knife!!

[MannyGoldstein]

32. LOL

Did you mean "Wright"?

:rofl:

[Bonobo]

33. Fixed it. Boy, too much black and white these days!

[tjwash]

36. No, it's Reverand "Right". Get it wright.

<---look over there quickly; two wingnuts critiquing an Obama speech.

[N4457S]

35. Hit Him With The Fire Extinguisher!

You know...Animal House style...

[TankLV]

60. ASSHOLE wright is NO excuse - and you all STILL try to defend this ASSHOLE...

amazing...

it's really "going away" isn't it?!?!

NOT!!!

[dchill]

80. Freep me baby...

Freep me all night long.

[Fyddlestyx]

30. kicked and recommended

[Skwmom]

37. What a liar. Oh, I forgot, she has a D in front of her name so that

makes it okay.

Your word is everything. When people cannot trust your word, you have nothing.

Haven't people had enough of being lied to by politicians?

[40ozDonkey]

38. ...

[ms liberty]

41. K&R - this correlates with my memories of that time period...

NAFTA was a pretty big deal here in NC, we have a lot of manufacturing, mostly furniture. Even though this is a pretty conservative area, and the Replicans had been pushing NAFTA for what, years?(while then-Democrats had been resisting) most people here were against it...rightfully so. Since coming to fruition under the Chimpster most of our jobs have gone to China.

[Taxmyth]

42. Good experience

Selling an unpopular agenda to a group of business executives and other interested parties.

[toys4kitty]

43. Kick

I'm too young in post count to rec- but I would if I could
:kick:

[catgirl]

44. First lady records show Clinton promoted NAFTA

Source: RUETERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton now argues that the North American Free Trade Agreement needs to be renegotiated, but newly released records showed on Wednesday she promoted its passage.

The National Archives and the Clinton presidential library jointly released more than 11,000 pages of Clinton's daily schedule as first lady from 1993 to 2001.

The release came in response to charges that she is overly secretive, and also allowed her campaign to promote her argument that she gained valuable White House experience during her years as first lady.

Clinton and Obama are battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22, the next contest in a closely fought campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to face Republican John McCain in the November election.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080319/pl_nm/usa_politics_clinton_records_dc

---

"NAFTA was considered a major accomplishment by President Bill Clinton in 1994."

[Larkspur]

45. Hillary LIED to Ohio and to all workers about not supporting NAFTA

Lying, a Clinton habit.

[MH1]

46. If the truth won't help Clinton

expect a lie.

[texshelters]

47. Clinton needs to repudiate her connection to President Clinton

If Barack Obama is guilty of being a racist because his pastor may be, then Clinton is guilty of lying to Cingress, killing children by bombing Iraq and Syria, and his support of NAFTA and Welfare to Work. Until She denounces former President Clinton, whom she's know for over 32 years, how can people trust that she's not a lying, killer and sex addict too.

Tex Shelters

[xultar]

48. Huge fuck up!

[Sadie5]

50. You shouldn't worry about NAFTA

Because Obamazoid isn't worried about it. Look...everything's under control. Obama has already promised the Canadians that if he is elected it's going to be 'business as usual'. Too bad his memo got leaked and all that. here's a big dose of sarcasm at ya!

[Zhade]

61. THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT CONFIRMED THAT NEVER HAPPENED. STOP LYING.

Or get informed.

[still_one]

49. At least she released the documents, have to give her credit for that

how you want to interpret her position now is an individual issue

[ozone_man]

51. Remind me where Obama is on NAFTA/CAFTA?

I know where Clinton is, but I'm not clear how Obama differs. Something like NAFTA is here already and to change it would cause too much damage, or something like that?

I guess my issue with both of them is that they seem to be corporate politicians not that distinguishable. On issues of character, Obama wins, but I'm not sold on his politics yet.

[RB TexLa]

56. They are both on the correct side of NAFTA: they both support it.

[depakid]

52. Not really news...

Seems to me, everyone pretty much took that as a given.

[Baby Snooks]

53. "That was then, this is now..."

What she will say if someone presses her about it. Even with the Canadians, well, "that was then, this is now."

Anyone who would vote for her at this point deserves her.

[anonymeme]

55. You Base This Unbelievably Biased Post on the Following Nugget From That "News" Piece?!

You Base This Unbelievably Biased Post on the Following Nugget From That "News" Piece?!

From the following tidbit of info you were able to extract that Hillary pushed NAFTA?!

"The former first lady's records showed first lady Clinton worked on behalf of the accord.

Among the thousands of details of daily life for Clinton, there was a November 10, 1993, entry -- a "NAFTA Briefing drop-by," in Room 450 of the executive office building next door to the White House, closed to the news media.

Approximately 120 people were expected to attend the briefing, and Clinton was to be introduced by White House aide Alexis Herman for brief remarks concluding the program"

You got all that stuff you spouted from THAT?!

OMIGOD! Are you a mind reader, too?

[parkeradison]

57. Regarding Hillary and NAFTA

Isn't that surprising, a Clinton being caught in "double-speak".

[gmudem]

58. But but but

Scary black preacher! Hide the children!

Hillary Clinton is a lying liar. She fooled the Ohio voters, but I hope Pennsylvania voters are smarter than that. Clinton is no friend of the working class.

[ryanmuegge]

62. They're both big-time "free" traders.

Unfortunately, there isn't enough difference between Obama and Hillary worth even arguing about.

[IndianaGreen]

63. And those idiots in Ohio believed her lies about opposing NAFTA

I'll bet most of them also believed Bush when he told them that Saddam was pals with bin Laden and had WMDs. The same stupid people always make the same stupid mistakes.

The Left was right about the war, assholes, and you are still refusing to hear the Left when you are told to get all of our troops out of Iraq ASAP.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

68. How do voters in PA view NAFTA?

[Zorro]

64. Overall NAFTA has been good for the US economy

Anti-NAFTA sentiment is not a universally held belief among Democrats; I believe it basically was and is good policy.

It's unfortunate that people lost dead-end jobs, but the general effect has been lower prices for a variety of common products.

I sense there would be a strong sentiment to bring back Smoot-Hawley tariffs among a lot of posters here.

[HereSince1628]

65. So the displaced workers were just dead-enders?

Wow. That sounds bad.

[Zhade]

69. Clearly, you are not an economist.

So when did IT become a "dead-end job"?

Get informed, you're embarrassing yourself.

[westernpenndem]

70. Look who's talking

Okay smartypants, did you happen to inform yourself that the number of poor farmers from all over Central America flocking to cross our border has mushroomed since NAFTA? Thanks to the fine print of this brilliant document, the farmers have been persuaded to sell their acreage to corporate agribusiness for less than they deserved. And not many of those farmers are needed on that land anymore. Now guess what? They're out of work, can't sustain themselves on their land like they used to, and now they are crashing OUR borders trying to find work. They're our problem now. These are the new illegal immigrants, and they are many. Bad for them, bad for us.

So who should be embarrassed? Let's re-write NAFTA, both Dems agree on that (just Hillary belatedly).

[Zorro]

72. So educate me

Please tell me how IT was impacted by NAFTA, principally a tariff-reducing measure between the US, Mexico, and Canada.

A dead-end job is one with little or no future or possibility of advancement. They do exist, and it's incumbent for people to either avoid them or find alternative jobs before the axe falls.

[Zorro]

81. I'm still waiting for you to inform me, Einstein

BTW, "dead-end job" = job with little or no future for advancement.

Just so you understand what a dead-end job is.

[catgirl]

73. What a crock

It's been good for China and India, not for us. And the "common goods" you speak of-
the tainted crap from China (kids toys, medicine, pet food, dyed clothes.....). Wow, we
really made out on this one!

[Zorro]

79. Why do you claim NAFTA has been good for China or India?

NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement.

Please tell me how and when China and India became part of the North American continent.

I'm very curious to understand how this agreement between North American neighbors has helped the Asian economies.

So dazzle me with your economic scholarship, please.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

67. The next debate is going to be interesting!

[Megahurtz]

74. Hillary Clinton sold us out.

She sold out the whole Country.

[CANDO]

76. Bend over and spread 'em!

But the Clintons are for the working people! N A F T A The darling child of conservative economics, brought to you in part by Democrats of the DLC. I'm voting for Obama.

[mbperrin]

78. Some people say....

oh brother.