Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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October 29, 2007 8:28 AM
Edwards Move Makes Trade '08 Centerpiece
The Financial Times headline this morning says it all: "Edwards' Attack on Peru Deal Shifts Debate." The story summarizes John Edwards (D) announcement that he is opposing not only the Peru Free Trade Agreement, but the entire package of White House-backed deals designed to expand the job-killing, wage-destroying NAFTA trade model into South America and Asia - the package of deals that a small handful of Democrats endorsed back on May 10th in a secret pact with the Bush administration. Edwards said the agreements do "not meet my standard of putting American workers and communities first, ahead of the interests of the big multinational corporations, which for too long have rigged our trade policies for themselves."The move, consistent with Edwards' economic populist campaign, drives a wedge right through the heart of the Democratic presidential primary.
Last week, as noted here on this site, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced his support for the Peru deal, and then tried to obfuscate his position under harsh questioning. Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) hasn't said anything about the Peru deal.
As Public Citizen's Lori Wallach said, Edwards move now puts the spotlight on the divide between the progressive movement and what I have called the Money Party (and Edwards has called the Corporate Democrats).
"This is where the rubber hits the road and we find out how far Hillary thinks she needs to go on trade to court the Democratic base," she said. "Peru is about to go to a Senate vote so she can't duck the issue."
You can be sure we'll be hearing a lot of noise about how this deal is supposedly great for average Americans and Peruvians alike. But remember, no major labor, human rights, anti-poverty, environmental, consumer protection or religious group in either the United States or Peru have endorsed the deal. In its international version (not online) the Financial Times, in fact, points out that Edwards announcement was welcomed by, among others, "the heads of Peru's labor movement and Pedro Barretto, the country's archbishop."
Iowa is a state that has been hard hit by lobbyist-written trade deals and that has a history of trade/globalization issues roiling presidential primaries. Edwards' move will likely ensure that's the case again this year, especially considering how split the the Democratic cardidates are in terms of their allegiances to the progressive movement and the Money Party in Washington.
FRIENDLY REMINDER: To the conspiracy theorists, let me reiterate what I have said often in the past: I do not work for nor get paid by nor have officially endorsed any candidate. Please debate the issue, rather than whipping up wild theories unsubstantiated by any evidence.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
Finally!
Finally!
Finally! Why so tardy?
I'm pretty sure Clinton will take Edwards' position on this issue, because he's the only one she's ever been worried about.
She does not want him to win Iowa.
Barack Obama entering the race was the best thing that ever happened to the Clintons, in keeping John Edwards from stopping Clinton, which he would have easily done had Obama not been lured into the race by someone in DC.
If Edwards wins Iowa without spending much money in the state, that gives him legs heading into NH, NV, and SC, and Clinton doesn't want that.
If she adopts John Edwards' position, she's calculating that it was the best move for her to make, to try and get the knockout punch in Iowa. It won't be because of "principles."
For the life of me, I cannot fathom why Sirota continues to push Edwards as some kind of fuckin' populist. Surely Sirota is not that big an idiot. Is he on Edwars' campaign staff or what? The only populist in this campaign is Dennis Kucinich.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom why Sirota continues to push Edwards as some kind of fuckin' populist. Surely Sirota is not that big an idiot. Is he on Edwars' campaign staff or what? The only populist in this campaign is Dennis Kucinich.
Doug,
Sirota has written off Kucinich despite the fact that Kucinich is closer to Sirota's pro-progressive stands sadly. Edwards is nothing but a bag of hot air or he'd would not only apologize but fight to CANCEL China PNTR and NAFTA. And while he may apologize for his support for the Iraq war, he has NO PLANS to get the US out of Iraq. Also, he plans to hire Republicans into his cabinet thereby putting him closer to being a Clinton clone ! Kucinich should DUMP the Democratic Party and run as an Independent and get Bernard Sanders as his running mate or at least Ron Paul if only Paul would go Independent.
Doug,
Sirota has written off Kucinich despite the fact that Kucinich is closer to Sirota's pro-progressive stands sadly. Edwards is nothing but a bag of hot air or he'd would not only apologize but fight to CANCEL China PNTR and NAFTA. And while he may apologize for his support for the Iraq war, he has NO PLANS to get the US out of Iraq. Also, he plans to hire Republicans into his cabinet thereby putting him closer to being a Clinton clone ! Kucinich should DUMP the Democratic Party and run as an Independent and get Bernard Sanders as his running mate or at least Ron Paul if only Paul would go Independent.
Here's former president Fox explaining to Larry King what the "free" trader's ultimate vision for the Americas is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIh0UjgCYQ
Here's Harold Ford Jr. of the DLC explaining how they help, and who is in the DLC camp:
"...Bill Clinton did that. When you're a small-businessperson, you have to appreciate the way he helped lower health costs on businesspeople in this country. If you're a worker, you have to appreciate the number of jobs he helped create. We don't run from that at all. Now, if your question is, [with] Mrs. Clinton in the race, does that complicate things? Well, by no means. Most of the people running either chaired the DLC or chaired specific efforts that we launched at the DLC." - HF Jr.
Lowered health care costs on businesspeople? Lowered? The number of jobs Clinton helped create? Oh, right, not jobs in the United States, jobs in China. I get it.
It's like he graduated Summa Cum Lied from the Rove Institute of Bald-Faced Deception.
Note that snippet of truth at the end though. All the major players running for prez as D's are disciples.
A couple more choice Ford-isms:
"I'm teaching at Vanderbilt University, I'm vice chairman at Merrill Lynch, I'm chairman for the DLC, and I have a relationship with the Fox News channel and the Fox business channel, where I make some political and business commentary." - HF Jr.
If selling out == being a moderate, this guy's going to get a ticket for straddling the double yellow line.
"If we knew then what we know now … I was in the Congress; I would not have voted for the resolution. But at the same time, we're in a different place now. I caution anybody who continues to talk about the past on this issue." - HF Jr.
Keep cautioning voters against holding officials accountable for cowardice and lack of principles, there, almost-senator. A fine foundation for a winning strategy in '08 that will be.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/65772/page/1
By all rights Kucinich ought to be one of the front runners, if base Democrats had the fucking sense to vote for their self-interest like they used too. But they don't anymore for the most party. This is Hillary can be a front runner despite having a economic agenda identical to republicans.
That said I think Sirota supports Edwards because he sees him as the lessor of 3 evils and thats not saying much. Hillary is a nightmare sent straight from hell. Obama is nothing but a Clintonian inspired side-show attraction designed to draw people away from Kucinich and the real issues facing the nation. Obama is basically the shuck and jive man of the Democratic party.
Hell the news media and netroots won't even cover the skyrocketing price of oil(and precious metals) and what it means to consumers or that the dollar is sinking a anchor(losing about 1-2 cents a week against foreign currencies) this should be scaring the shit out of Wallstreet and most Americans considering that our economy is propped up by people buying our debt(or were).
Economic alarm bells should be going off across the country and in the capitol but they are not.
Politically I don't know how it will play out if the economic situation keeps unraveling. All I know is that people will be in a very vindictive mood if things keep going the way they are.
Economic alarm bells are going off around here, but nobody's listening.
But this is the hinterlands, and our issues are so far below the eastern limousine liberals radar, they might as well be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Most of the so-called "progressive" sites don't even want to discuss issues which affect more than half of this country.
In the mean time Clinton and Obama play the race/gender cards, and kiss up to K-street.
I'll take Edwards over either of them, but then I'd take a spavined mule over either of them too.
A note about post redundancy. Something was wrong with post mechanizer yesterday. I notice a couple others must have repeated post because of same error message. Apologize for all the finalizes. I liked that prediction that Clinton would ditto on FTA's. I doubt it. She would have to abandon K street at the same time.
A note about post redundancy. Something was wrong with post mechanizer yesterday. I notice a couple others must have repeated post because of same error message. Apologize for all the finalizes. I liked that prediction that Clinton would ditto on FTA's. I doubt it. She would have to abandon K street at the same time. I just got another error message trying to post this. Will try again.
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