Penn Ouster Opens Opportunity for Obama: Threatens to put Clinton on defensive over trade

NYT: Ouster Opens Opportunity for Obama
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: April 8, 2008


(Richard Perry/NYT)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at a conference last week in a training center for the electrical workers’ union in Pittsburgh.

The resignation of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief strategist, who came under fire for advising Colombia on a free trade pact, gives Senator Barack Obama an opportunity he has awaited since Mrs. Clinton walloped him on trade issues in Ohio. The incident involving Mark Penn threatens to put Mrs. Clinton on the defensive over trade, as Mr. Obama’s labor backers accuse her of not being tough enough on preventing agreements that they say cost American jobs.

The issue is certain to resonate in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 22 and where one of four primary voters is expected to be from a union household. Pockets of the state have suffered from chronic unemployment and low wages since many factories and steel mills closed, and many people fault free trade agreements. In Ohio, where economic troubles are even more widespread, Mrs. Clinton capitalized on the trade issue, thanks to a leaked memorandum. That document said Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser had told Canadian officials that he was engaged in campaign rhetoric when he talked about revising the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr. Obama denied that.

Mrs. Clinton made the issue the focus of some advertisements and went on to win the primary on March 4 by a sizable margin. Now Mr. Obama’s labor backers are trying to turn the tables. “Trade is the No. 1 issue in Pennsylvania,” said James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has endorsed Mr. Obama. Mr. Hoffa said Mr. Penn hurt Mrs. Clinton’s campaign when he met Colombian officials in his position as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, the global public relations firm.

Colombia had hired Mr. Penn in an effort to reach a free trade agreement with the United States. Many labor leaders oppose the agreement because they say Bogotá has done too little to stop the assassinations of union officials. “If Hillary is going to have any credibility on the trade issue,” Mr. Hoffa said, “she can’t have strategists on her staff who are lobbying for trade agreements like the one with Colombia.” Mr. Hoffa said it was not enough for Mr. Penn to leave as chief strategist. He called on Mrs. Clinton to end his role as an adviser and pollster, as well....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/politics/08trade.html

she's walking around like the Empress with no clothes.
Someone's gonna start snickering.

More dishonesty from Hillary! I think, as you do, that more and more people will start to see through the BS by Clinton!

It was a ploy to see if they could fake out the Teamsters and the SEIU.

i don't think they'll take this deception kindly