Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Must Read: Newspaper Cited in Obama's OHIO NAFTA Mailer Calls it "Misleading"

From Newsday:

"Obama's use of the citation in this way does strike us as misleading...It's an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try to win an office."

To see Senator Obama's "misleading" mailer: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/The_boon_quote.html

Below is the full text of today's Newsday story:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/02/_...

NAFTA: Us, Hillary and the "Boon"

The Democratic campaign has moved in earnest to Ohio, where times are tough and NAFTA has become a dirty word. In an effort to score points, Barack Obama has been dropping a mail-piece (left) that repeats a charge he has made several other times during the campaign -- that "Hillary Clinton believed NAFTA was 'a boon' to the economy."

This attack has attracted a flurry of attention, from Clinton's campaign and some reporters. As it turns out, the primary source is us. Back in Sept. 2006, an abbreviated chart printed on Newsday's Spin Cycle page compared Hillary with her Democratic US Senate primary challenger Jonathan Tasini on a variety of issues. The issues chart included this:

"FREE TRADE JONATHAN TASINI: Tasini favors scrapping the Bill Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it drives down domestic wages.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Clinton thinks NAFTA has been a boon to the economy, but voted against the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, saying it would drive jobs offshore."

Because it's raised questions -- with Clinton criticizing Obama for making "false claims" in the mail piece -- we've looked into the chart. In it, we did not have the Clinton campaign using the word "boon" in describing NAFTA. The word was our characterization of how we best understood her position on NAFTA, based on a review of past stories and her public statements.

Tasini called for scrapping NAFTA in 2006. She did not.

We do not have a direct quote indicating her campaign told us she thought it was good for the economy at that time. Also, for that matter, Clinton's campaign did not contact us to question the item after it appeared in print.

Obama's use of the citation in this way does strike us as misleading. The quote marks make it look as if Hillary said "boon," not us. It's an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try to win an office. That said, we should have been clearer.