Look, I don't CARE, OK?
It is hardly a secret that when it comes to offshore drilling, Sen. John McCain was against the idea before he was for it.
So it's a flip-flop -- or maybe he's rethinking his position based on new evidence, like, oh, $4+-a-gallon gas. Who cares what he thought last year if he's right now? Drill, drill, drill.
And I don't care about THIS, either:
The general campaign is on, independent voters are up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric - at least when it comes to free trade.
In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine's upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn't want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.
Was he pandering when he was against NAFTA before he was for it? What's the difference? If he will now support "trade, trade, trade" as the right way to go, more power to him.
"Gotcha!" is boring and not always helpful.
Comments
I'm not sure about unilateral negotiations.
Don't they cause hair to grow on the palms of your hands?
I think the difference lies in why they changed positions. When gas was a buck a gallon priorities were different. I can't think of any major changes in our trade situation with Canada and Mexico that would cause Obama to reconsider his position.
Workers not experiencing the benefits of NAFTA as promised when it was initially being considered?
Neither one means a damn thing. Bilateral pandering.
NAFTA is about three countries but world trade, especially with China is impacting our economy more. We may have lost manufacturing jobs (while gaining service jobs) since 1994 but Canada and Mexico did not gain many in the manufacturing sector ...China did.
Folks are screaming about trade deficits with NAFTA partners, but the increased deficits are 95% caused by our NAFTA oil imports. Politics got in the way of free trade when US environmentalists supported by Democrats virtually shut down or at least severely crippled our domestic oil refining and exploration industry.
Politics have made NAFTA the undeserving strawman.