Posted on 06/21/2008 5:25:01 PM PDT by The_Republican
OTTAWA -- Sen. John McCain traveled to Canada on Friday to offer a vigorous defense of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as his campaign sought to portray rival Sen. Barack Obama as inconsistent on free trade.
"For all the successes of NAFTA, we have to defend it without equivocation in political debate because it is critical to the future of so many Canadian and American workers and businesses," McCain told a crowd of several hundred at the Economic Club of Canada. "Demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls."
McCain said his visit to Canada was "not a political campaign trip," and his remarks centered on keeping relations between the United States and Canada strong. The Republican from Arizona did not refer to Obama by name and refused to take questions on political matters at a news conference after his speech, though he was accompanied by top political adviser Charles R. Black Jr. McCain spent much of his trip in closed-door meetings with Canadian officials.
Nonetheless, his comments on NAFTA invoked Obama's criticism of the agreement, and McCain's campaign attacked the senator from Illinois on the issue throughout the day, accusing him of changing his position after becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.
"For months, Barack Obama said that he would 'make sure that we renegotiate' NAFTA, demanded unilateral changes and threatened to unilaterally withdraw if he did not get his way," McCain said in a statement released by his campaign. ". . . Now he claims: 'I'm not a big believer in doing things unilaterally.' "
Throughout his primary battle with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Obama was a strong critic of NAFTA, describing it as a "big mistake."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don’t know how popular my comment will be, but NAFTA is good for the US. We get a large amount of oil from Canada and Mexico. It’s in our best interest to have good trade relations with them.
Brilliant!
The issue here is not NAFTA but rather the NAU.
Since this talk was delivered in Canada soon after McCain chicago meeting with hispanics in which he vowed to push for comprehensive emmigration reform/amnesty—it can be inferred that McCain will likely continue push the NAU.
Treason is the reason it all smells so good to the manchurian candidate because it reaffirms that we are the children and he is big john—and just as big as any international fatcat.
Agree
spot on.
Just as was done in the Mexico and Canada elections, 2008 will bring yet another POTUS who will see that the bipartisan NAU agenda moves forward.
How many Congressional candidates are anti-NAU?
“How many Congressional candidates are anti-NAU?”
I think a major problem is that few politicians will even admit that the NAU is even being conceived of, let alone in any concrete plans.
Still hush, hush as far as I’ve noticed this campaign season. W assured us there was nothing secret going on at those meetings.
bipartisan NAU
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understand the meaning of bipartisan here. we’re talking about bipartisan democrat and republican elite opinion here. elite democrats see cheap votes and elite republicans see cheap labor. on this there is unanimity among the elite 1% of 1% of american opinion. as you go down the income scale to people who do not have their own lawyers guns and money to protect them but rather have to depend on the government...the level of attachment to the NAU declines precipitously.
Sorry, I’m not sure.
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