The Plank

Barack Obama is taken to task here for his shifting rhetoric on free trade. Barron YoungSmith finds Obama being “a bit reductionist” on free trade in his Sunday attack on Hillary Clinton. YoungSmith writes that while Obama hits Clinton for campaigning for the North American Free Trade Agreement when she was First Lady, his “bitter” remark was less than laudatory of anti-free trade sentiment. After “Bitter-gate” broke on Friday, Isaac Chotiner picked up on Obama’s inclusion of free trade among the things Pennsylvanians “cling” to when they’re “bitter,” leading Chotiner to conclude that Obama is “almost admitting” that he doesn’t believe his previous rhetoric against pending free trade deals.