Bush administration officials yesterday defended the North American Free Trade Agreement and blasted suggestions by the Democratic presidential candidates that the United States might withdraw.
"Quitting NAFTA would destroy economies in US border communities, hurt US farmers, rip apart North American supply chains, and devastate large and small exporters," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a speech in Washington.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both pledged that if elected president they would threaten to pull out of NAFTA to force Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the accord and add labor and environmental protections.
In addition to Gutierrez's speech, the US Trade Representative's office released a report about NAFTA, saying that it has led to a tripling of trade among the nations, an increase in US employment, and an increase in wages in both Mexico and the United States.
BLOOMBERG
Now, some in the journalism community are questioning the propriety of the TV, radio, and newspaper sites featuring ads for one candidate on the eve of crucial contests in the two big states.
Bill Mitchell writes in a column on the website of The Poynter Institute that the ad, which runs with a small disclaimer that it is a paid political advertisement, is striking for its "prominence and interactivity."
(The Globe has a smaller Obama banner ad on its politics website homepage.)
Mitchell sent a series of questions to editors and news directors at several of the sites, including: How they decided to accept the ad, whether that call would have been different if it had attacked Clinton, and if readers might interpret the ad as an endorsement.
FOON RHEE
After a cameo appearance during NBC's "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, Clinton appeared Monday night on the "Daily Show With Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central.
Host Stewart asked Clinton why, when the election is largely about judgment, she took time out the night before yesterday's crucial contests in Ohio and Texas to be made fun of on national TV.
"It is pretty pathetic," replied Clinton, laughing along with the studio audience while appearing via satellite from Austin, Texas.
FOON RHEE
On his Monday show, he chuckled when a caller said her daughter thought Barack Obama looked like Curious George, the children's book character.
"Don't make me laugh," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his website.
He later apologized to Obama after, he said, staffers told him that Curious George is a monkey. "I never heard of Curious George," he said, telling listeners that when he was growing up, he watched Yogi Bear and the Jetsons instead.
FOON RHEE
