You've got to stand and deliver, with your body and soul

(picture of Edwards today at NBC joining the striking WGA and supporting
union members, taken by my friend Bear of Bruin Design)

John Edwards took issue with Hillary laughing about NAFTA last night:

One moment from the debate stuck with me – when Senator Clinton was asked about NAFTA and she tried to joke about charts and laugh about it.

"For the one million Americans who lost their jobs because of NAFTA, this isn't a laughing matter.

Indeed. David Sirota put together this video, showing the laugh-fest along with some sobering facts:



I was invited to participate in a conference call today by David Bonier, Edwards' Campaign Manager. Also on the call were:

• Congressman Michael Michaud (D-ME), Co-Chairman House Labor and Working Families Caucus,
  
• United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard
  
• Transport Workers Union International Vice President Roger Tauss
  

All pretty interesting stuff. They were all reading from talking points, no surprise there, but I was surprised by the passion these guys showed, all of them. Bonier I would suspect it from, but the others, well, I was surprised.

One of the points they made was HRC saying that:

"NAFTA was a mistake to the extent that it did not deliver on what we had hoped it would..."*

That's pretty tepid criticism of something most on the left think was a bad idea on the best of days, and one of the major disappointments of Bill's Presidency. It appears that either because of ideology, or spousal support, HRC hasn't moved past that issue.

But now she is supporting the pending Peru Trade Agreement. Here's what Edwards says about that:

Despite strong efforts by many Democrats in Congress, labor organizations and fair trade advocates to embed international labor standards into the Agreement, what resulted were references to general principles and not specific standards. And the Agreement still replicates and in fact expands all of the other most damaging aspects of past trade agreements. In short, this agreement does 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 and against American families.

Well. HRC may be leading the polls, and she'd clearly be better than any Republican, but as my favorite Dem. candidate?

Eh, not so much.



* HRC quote from the NYTimes video and transcript of the debate.