It has only been a few hours since Hillary Clinton has announced that in contrast to her previous enthusiastic support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, she now opposes it (with caveats). Of course, her new opposition to TPP is a completely principled position and has nothing to do with politics. Yeah, right! However, will those on the left be so skeptical of such an obvious political ploy? Well, it seems that at least some are not buying her self-serving rationale for now opposing the TPP starting with Jonathan Chait of New York magazine. In fact the very title of his article, Hillary Clinton Pretends to Oppose Pacific Trade Deal, reveals complete cynicism about her motivation:
There is a long tradition of Democratic presidential candidates posturing against free trade on the stump only to reverse themselves in office. Hillary Clinton’s announcement today that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership would seem to fit snugly within that tradition.
...she praised the agreement over and over and over, even calling it “the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.” Now Clinton has repudiated a treaty with which she has closely associated herself.
She has framed her opposition in carefully hedged terms that leave her multiple escape avenues. “As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it,” she said, going on to add, “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.” Is anybody going to believe that she will actually oppose the treaty as president? Sure, she might slightly mollify some supporters in labor, who would like cover to support her candidacy even though they disagree on the agreement. But she will also do more damage to her overall credibility and reputation for conviction — which happens to be the biggest single problem she faces right now.
Perhaps the question should not be who on the left are going to call out Hillary on this flip-flop as Chait has done but which faithful member of the MSM is so far in the bag for Hillary that he or she will risk humiliating themselves by really trying to make us believe that her current opposition to TPP is sincere and not done for political expediency. Whoever that person may be is definitely worthy of some sort of prize. Lanny Davis Fawning award?
