Sirota: Hillary Clinton, NAFTA and Triangulation 2.0

Harold Meyerson's column in the Washington Post today is a terrific read - and got me thinking about just how unprincipled and smarmy Hillary Clinton really is here. You'll notice Meyerson reports that "Clinton has yet to take a position" on the NAFTA expansion that will be voted on in the House today.

My guess is that Clinton will vote against the first part of the NAFTA expansion - the Peru Free Trade Agreement. That "no" vote would be a good thing. But her silence in the lead up to the vote is really the bigger story that's already been written, no matter how she ends up voting. She wants to please the Big Money interests who are underwriting her campaign and who are pushing this trade policy, but she also faces an increasingly competitive primary challenge from John Edwards, who has come out strongly against NAFTA-style trade policies (more on Edwards in my upcoming nationally syndicated newspaper column out on Friday).

So my guess is that what's going on is that she has told the lobbyists, corporate executives and other Big Money interests financing her presidential run that she'll stay quiet in the lead up to the vote, so as to not change the dynamic of the vote in Congress by getting more Democrats to oppose the Peru deal. Then, when its clear the deal is going to sail through because folks like her haven't stepped up and been leaders, she'll quietly cast her vote against it, and then during select campaign appearances with select groups, she'll brag about her supposed courage and pretend she took a strong stand for the middle class.

You can call this smart politics, and sure - if Clinton votes against the deal in the end, that's good. But what this really is is Triangulation 2.0. And, as I said, it's unprincipled and smarmy - the opposite of, ya know, "leadership."

Clinton and Obama.....Bunker Boys

"Bunker Boys" is a pejorative term used to describe the cowardly behavior of certain types, usually field officers, during Vietnam. These individuals would cower inside reinforced bunkers while the bullets were flying and the mortars were dropping. AFTER the action was over, they would make an appearance prancing around the battlefield pretending to be brave heroes, posing for the cameras, and recommending themselves for medals. The grunts in the holes knew them for what they were.


Dodd, Kerry, and Feingold STOOD UP and fought DURING the battle.

Clinton and Obama hid behind their SILENCE during the real fighting. Hillary actually RAN from the question at a press conference on Wednesday.
Clinton & Obama stood up ONLY AFTER the battle was over.
They will now parade around showing off their "NO votes like a badge of courage, and some of their campfollowers will applaud them. But the grunts in the holes know the truth."