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Hillary: Stephanopoulos And I Were In Anti-NAFTA Camp
During the Indiana town-hall meeting on ABC, Hillary stated flatly that she and George Stephanopoulos, who worked in the Clinton White House during Bill's first term, were both in the anti-NAFTA camp.
"George and I were actually against NAFTA," Hillary said. She then claimed that she and George had expressed opposition to NAFTA in private meetings.
Stephanopoulos didn't dispute any of this.
Of course, Steph may well have felt that contradicting her on this point would have made news in a way he doesn't want to in his new journalist/pundit role. Still, an interesting moment.
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She then claimed that she and George had expressed opposition to NAFTA in private meetings, but could not convey the substance of those meetings to the public because they took place under heavy sniper fire.
May 4, 2008 9:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
yeah, that explains it...thanks for clarifying!
:)
May 4, 2008 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Naw, It is the Bill's famous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy.
May 4, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
He's backed her up on this point before, during one of his roundtables.
So really, she's confirming that she says one thing to the public and another behind closed doors. What a shock.
May 4, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
And we believe Hillary and Stephinfechitopoulos, do we?
No. I don't believe one word that comes out of either one of them, including "a" "and" and "the."
May 4, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, so it was OK for Obama to support John Kerry's war stance in 2004 because it was in the name of Democrat solidarity, but for the First Lady to publicly support her husband's policies was hypocritical.
Right.
May 4, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton was in meetings where she's been quoted by others at those meetings, as well as on video, as making actively supportive statements about NAFTA.
Obama never "agreed" with Kerry on the war, but he went out of his way to defer giving a contrary opinion whilst in the Kleig lights; contrary to the party's brand new nominee.
FWIW, Stephanopulos should be disqualified from doing interviews with his former boss. Really detracts from the quality and from the newsworthiness. I feel like I might be watching an info-mercial.
May 4, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
She was against because she wanted Bill's political capital spend for healthcare first.
May 4, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I seem to recall the reason she was cool on NAFTA was that it took the spotlight off her health care initiative.
May 4, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Liar, Liar, Pantsuit on fire.
May 4, 2008 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
More accurately: Liars, Liars, Ugly Pantsuit On Fire.
May 4, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
i hope the the good people of Indiana and NC puts us out of this misery on Tuesday.
May 4, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
.....Hillary was also against the Defence of Marriage Act and will be learned to have vigorously opposed the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy that Bill had to reluctantly implement against her protestations which all the public records of have been classified, juss take her word for it. Would this woman pander to you?
May 4, 2008 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Historical fact shows she was a supporter of DOMA and DADT...
May 5, 2008 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody has a problem with the fact that she's using a member of the press, once a Clinton staffer, to promote her story?
Lee Atwater would be so proud.
May 4, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can you believe this, fairbooks? I keep saying they have Rove's handbook, but you know where Rove got it - Atwood.
And they are basing Hillary's campaign on some of the worst of American politics. The absolute worst!
It's unbelievable - I'm truly gobsmacked.
May 4, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Atwater.
I typed Atwood - my mind said one thing and my fingers did another.
Something isn't awake up there in the neural pathways...
May 4, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, you wouldn't want to get on Margaret's bad side. She would not enjoy being confused with Atwater.
May 4, 2008 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'm old enough and white enough that I should be firmly in Hillary's demographic. But because I'm this old, I remember well the GHW Bush race, and the beginning of this Orwellian kind of campaigning. The fact that she uses these tactics against a member of her own party just turns my stomach.
May 4, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Karl Rove will get to moderate the debate when Laura runs for President.
May 4, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ben Smith says NC largest paper endorses BB (Big Brown, the "Black Horse")
Reasons ?
• Many of her supporters seem intent on depicting Sen. Obama as the Jesse Jackson of 2008, a leader who appeals to an ethnic minority but not to the broader electorate needed to win.
• She sometimes exaggerates her influence and experiences, as when she claimed she "helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland" and said she ducked under sniper fire in Bosnia.
.... More here,
http://www.charlotte.com/opinion/story/608888.html
May 4, 2008 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you're caught on record you shouldn't repeat the lie.
May 4, 2008 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Someone posted a comment the other day that was really good about this point -
Bill and Hillary act as if they really don't get the internet. They act the way they did in the 90s - when Bill could talk on camera a mile a minute, sound very convincing and sincere and turn around 10 minutes later and completely reverse himself and still walk away while people were shaking their heads. You can't do that with the internet - there's a record of everything.
They don't seem to understand that. They still seem to think they can lie and nobody will notice if they keep lying and lie some more. And even if they reverse themselves, they think they can divert attention away from it and get away with it.
May 4, 2008 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary is a (Karl) Marxist. If you don't like her principles, well... she has others.
May 4, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Should read Graucho...
May 4, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
All I can say...
we got Sargent posting about a NAFTA opposition by HRC in "private meetings.
we got "Steph" (don't ask cuz I can't tell) standing down over the question.
AND....there was a question from an Obama supporter, but weird, I don't see it here.
May 4, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm against NAFTA... I mean, my husband twisted arms to push it through Congress and the senior member of my campaign staff was trying to expand the free trade to Columbia the leading exporter of cocaine to the free world... but I'm against it. ME. I get to have it both ways.
-Paid for by Hillary for President- (That's ME)
May 4, 2008 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
George didn't let her off all that easy with NAFTA. He brought up the Indiana plant that she blamed the closing of on George Bush, even though it was closed during Clinton's administration. George said that the Clintons often talk about the economic success of the administration, but a large part of that is due to globalization. He said "You can't have it both ways. How can you take credit for all of the good of Nafta, but not the bad of NAFTA?" She also was really evasive when asked about the Clinton library donors, and said the names would be "released when she's president."
May 4, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
"when she's President " ??? In her dreams, may be.
May 4, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
She also was really evasive when asked
about the Clinton library donors, and
said the names would be "released when
she's president."
TRANSLATION:
The Clinton Library donor list will NEVER be released. Note for investigative journalists - Check out the House of Saud.
May 4, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
God, I wish I could've watched the ABC campaign event for Clinton.
Hillary is more nuanced than John Kerry. John was for it before he was against it. Hillary was for it in public, but against it in private, then for it while running for the Senate, and is now against it while running for President.
We should nominate Hillary because she would be more difficult to swift boat than Kerry was. The reason: we never now where she is or was at any particular moment in time.
She claims to be a Christian, but I think she's a Taoist. She is what she is in the moment.
May 4, 2008 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
You nailed it. What a lying fraud. And what's Stephadiculous supposed to do in that situation? Which is exactly why he shouldn't be doing these interviews or moderating debates.
May 4, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
ABC news just went from not reporting the truth about Clinton's decade long pro-NAFTA stance to outright helping her lie about it. Shameless.
May 4, 2008 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, because they're the most trustworthy people in politics. Honestly, give me a break. I don't know why Hillary continues to play this game of: "I was against NAFTA while I was First Lady." NO, Hillary, you were not. The White House records proved you wrong. I can only wonder why the hell no one piped up to say, "What about those? What do you have to say about that, Mrs. Clinton?"
May 4, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Georgie's shill-fest continues
May 4, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Chicago Tribune re-endorses Obama
May 4, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Liars.
May 4, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Un-freaking-believable! I thought cartoons only came on on Saturday mornings. This person is becoming a caricature of the lying, pandering, average-person-hating, elite, ridiculous politician. Please, someone, make it stop!
May 4, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were an actress and had to play the role of a power-hungry, disengenuous political character, I would play it exactly like Hillary: the voice, the nodding, the clapping, the pointing, and most important, the changing positions depending on the audience.
She has the character nailed! She is better than Meryl Streep in this role!
May 4, 2008 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have to at least allow the possibility that George didn't dispute Hillary's statement because it was true.
May 4, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope that's some serious snark, Otto. If not, we've sunk mighty low in our political (cough-cough) discourse. We just might have to stretch our brain synapses to the breaking point by allowing for the possibility that a presidential candidate and a supposedly (cough-cough) objective journalist said something because it is true. Wow. Imagine that. Funny: given the participants I just can't.
May 4, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is just ridiculous. There is so much evidence to the contrary on tape!!!!
Jed Report has it in all of it's glory. This just goes to show that Hillary thinks people are stupid and if she says it enough she can change the past.
Check it out - from her own mouth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BrPZYbCdJ4
May 4, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh sure, now it comes out. Of course, secretly she was having principled and correct thought all the time. She only supported the opposite strategy in public because of political expediency.
And that's exactly what principled leaders do, right?
May 4, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Anti-NAFTA camp? Oh you must mean the Perot camp. He was right, wasn't he Hillary? Oh, wait, you can't admit that, so you say all you remember is a bunch of charts.
May 4, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary was having pep talks and catered affairs in the 90's while in the WH for NAFTA's passage. She's a liar. The overwhelming proof of her complicity to getting NAFTA passed is now a historical fact. One should have always known that Steph was a meek acolyte for the Clintons all thru his post WH tenure. He too is a liar and a right wing stiff for media, covering for Hillary all thru these post 9/11 years. That's his job, the little wanker. For her to come out now and to continue proclaiming she was against NAFTA initially should make more than a few eyebrows twitter in astonishment. Few have successfully called her on a rather egregious and obvious lie. They should be throwing the telephone book at her face for this. Jon Stewart has. This is certainly comparable to her crapola about dodging bullets in Bosnia with baby Chelsea. What a laugh. She's reprehensible and is now firmly telegraphing her viscious campaign dispositions. If anyone is elite, as she says, its she and the money making machine-portfolio of her now ludicrously wealthy family.
May 5, 2008 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink