In their Ohio debate last night it was dismaying to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama compete for the the strongest denunciation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Obama "won" the political coverage, it appears, though they both found nothing much to praise in the trade pact.
The Democratic candidates' treatment of the economy overall is like a series of leftist political cartoons. (See businessman Sam Zell's comments here.) But, specifically, to trash NAFTA after all it has done to improve the economies of all three participant nations --the United States, Mexico and Canada--and get away with it is an indictment of the media and the Republicans, if nothing else. Worse, the candidates are pandering to public ignorance on this issue. They are smart. They surely know better.
How many more Mexicans would be coming accross our border if NAFTA had not helped stimulate the improvement of life in Mexico? We hear about U.S. jobs that have been "lost". How many American jobs that exist now would have been absent without NAFTA? Overall, free trade has been a huge boon for America as well as the world.
So who is going to wise these people up, and who is going to wise up the public about them? This morning they were chastised by the Canadian finance minister and even by the opposition Liberal Party. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/02/27/flaherty-nafta.html. Good for them.
Alas, the only real difference between Senators Clinton and Obama on this vital issue is that the latter is more skilled at making his unreasonable position sound plausible to a layman.
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