US Presidential Race 2008: March 2008 Archives

I'm always amazed at what a politician will say to try to garner a vote. And in this respect, I'm reminded of the famous quote by former US President George H.W. Bush as he accepted the 1988 Republican nomination at the convention in New Orleans: 'Read my lips: No new taxes!' Of course, the irony of that statement is that two years later, Mr. Bush - mainly thanks to pressure from a Democratically controlled Senate and House - was forced to raise taxes to help ease the US deficit. Now 20 years later, it's the Democratic candidates that are flapping their gums and saying things which just aren't going to happen. I'm referring to both Obama and Clinton's stance when it comes to the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Both candidates have gone on record as saying that they would try to opt out of the trade pact with Canada and Mexico unless it can be renegotiated to better favor US interests. This is just a load of pure crap! Most economists agree that all three countries have benefited from the agreement, particularly the US consumer, who has seen a marked increase in the amount of cheaper goods imported from both Mexico and Canada. And for the Democratic candidates to simply make sweeping statements about either renegotiating or even scrapping NAFTA is merely political. Most political watchers realize that both Obama and Clinton are pandering to people in Ohio, a state that has seen significant unemployment, and has blamed a lot of it on NAFTA and job losses to cheaper Canadian companies. Now, there may have been a bit of validity to this argument five or ten years ago in Ohio. But if you look at the strength of the Canadian dollar today, you realize very quickly that it doesn't make much sense for US companies to try to ship the work north, particularly given that Canada's corporate tax structure is quite a bit more unfavorable that the current tax scheme in the United States. So if Democratic voters in Ohio think for one minute that if either Clinton or Obama become President that they will dump NAFTA, they really have another thing coming! And as for both Democratic candidates, perhaps they should be taking a lesson from the 1998 Bush speech. Lip service then equaled a loss of the White House 4 years later.

This is a post in a series focusing on the US Presidential race. As the 2008 campaign has global implications, the writers at Zhongnanhai will be occasionally posting on this topic. You can read more of our coverage by clicking here