Dean must clarify NAFTA

Liberal Oasis has some tough love advice for Dean regarding his words on NAFTA:

Dean blew this big. But it’s fixable, if he’s willing.

On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, he picked a worthless fight with George Stephanopoulos over whether he used to be a “supporter” of NAFTA (Dean’s claim) or a “strong supporter” (George’s characterization).

To make matters worse, the Gephardt campaign did its oppo research, and quickly alerted the media of Dean’s '95 statement (also on This Week) that he was a “very strong supporter” of NAFTA.

(To any skeptics, check the transcript on Nexis. He said it, and it’s in context.)

This particular flub isn’t getting major media attention, but the political press corps (led by The Note) is surely fully aware of it, and is flummoxed, maybe even peeved.
If this is not corrected, he will be open to charges as severe as lying.

Of course, it is far more likely the case that Dean was not actively lying, (that would just be too stupid) but simply had no recollection of his earlier statement.

(There is no Nexis evidence that he ever used the phrase again to describe his position).

But it doesn’t matter.

Furthermore, if he lets this gaffe stand, he won’t be able to make his argument that we need international labor and enviro standards to minimize US job loss, without having others dredge all this up repeatedly.

Dean also said on This Week this past Sunday:

…when I make a mistake, I'm going to own up to it.

This is clearly a mistake. To not own up to it will invite more media skepticism and poison his future coverage on other matters.

The sooner Dean corrects this, the better.


(original emphasis removed, current emphasis mine). The political press corps is not neutral.

Gabriel earlier posted that the media should not be nit-picking and that Bush's own misstatements are actually egregious, deliberate, and harmful to the country compared to Dean's minor mis-step. He's absolutely right. But it's also irrelevant. This is the wrong election cycle to start expecting fair treatment in the media - as nominee, Dean is going to get Gored. This is the pragmatic truth. The campaign must accept this as reality and actively counter it rather than try to "rise above the fray" as Gore did and end up sinking like a stone.

The campaign has been showing dangerous tendencies recently, regarding their attitude towards critique. It's essential that they treat developing media memes with as much seriousness as they do frontal attacks by the other candidates.

UPDATE: I mis-quoted Gabriel. His point was that the feigned outrage over Dean's supposed mis-statements is hypocritical. He wants more nit-picking, of Bush, rather than explicitly decrying nit-picking on Dean. And again, I absolutely agree. But I think that given the media's submissive posture towards Bush, it's unlikely. These are the "facts on the ground".

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