Anyone else think these NAFTA negotiations were purposely dragged out to this date?

[ProgRocknProgPol]

One lame duck unpopular president on his way out (Nieto) who wants to salvage his departing image as much as possible and who doesn't want his successor to reap the rewards of a potentially good deal. One populist president (AMLO) who doesn't want any of the negotiation headaches of NAFTA or criticism of a potentially bad deal on his image as president. Timing of a deal very close to midterm elections, but deadline far enough afterward to maybe motivate gullible voters into thinking they have to keep a Repub majority in Congress to pass the deal. And this is precisely the last week this could have been done to allow the lame duck to sign the deal. Once again the repubs and their leader Spanky dangle a shiny object to try and boost their image just enough and at just the right time to stay in power. Hopefully enough of us will register and not be fooled by this. After all, a democratic congress would still pass a good trade deal.

[2naSalit]

1. Wouldn't surprise me.

[Squinch]

2. There is no deal, there have been no negotiations. He made it up.

There has been an agreement to maybe have negotiations.

Yes, he purposely dragged this shit out today, but shame on the press for not telling him he's a stinking liar when he did it.

[spanone]

8. exactly, they just pulled it out of their asses this morning to distract from the flag disaster

cnn called him out on it on their webpage...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/politics/trump-nafta-deal/index.html

[alwaysinasnit]

3. Found this on Rawstory

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/trade-expert-demolishes-trumps-nafta-claims-not-even-close-promise-made-base/

[ProgRocknProgPol]

7. Mr. Gold seems to describe the deal as a good/decent one but far from what Trump promised the base

Of course, Trumpers would think any deal by Spanky is a good one. I guess the only way to know for sure how much this affects the midterms is to see how things look next week in the polls.

I'm getting flashbacks of the North Korea situation in June where I was hoping for a good deal (that Spanky unsurprisingly failed to procure), but got worried about our chances in the midterms and our abilities to restrain Spanky and his sycophantic repubs in the instance. While this won't be as massive and unprecedented as a successful Korea denuclearlization deal (almost certainly not worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize), a good NAFTA deal would more directly benefit a larger number of voting Americans. Democrats really need to emphasize that such a deal would still be passed and will still be honored and fought for if they take over congress.

God, this whole presidency has brought out the worst in me. I'm worried about good things happening for the American people just because I think it will dis-motivate them from voting out the repub sycophants that are doing so many terrible things, most of all refusing to keep a check on Spanky and his criminal cadre.

[alwaysinasnit]

9. I get what you are saying. Mr. Gold may be saying this is a good one but what no one is saying is

that it is good for workers on either side of the border. NAFTA definitely is not good for workers. I too have moments when I can't believe I had awful thoughts about the trumpers but I have to believe this is temporary. I can say one thing at least about my family/friends circle, we will be voting this November. GOTV

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. There is no deal. There apparently have been some inconsequential discussions

that led to an agreement to conduct further discussions. I have no doubt that Spanky announced this non-deal today to draw attention back to himself, but it was so obviously a nothingburger that it crashed on takeoff and all the cable news shows are talking about McCain again - and to make matters worse, to talk about what a peevish, petty loser Trump is over not lowering the flag and not commenting on McCain's death.

[ProgRocknProgPol]

6. I agree with your point for now (will have to see what Ms. Freeland does in Washington tomorrow)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. It's a preliminary deal on a partial set of issues with half of the partners.

In it he has caved on a key demand of the other half: dropped the sunset clause, which no businessperson ever likes in a trade deal. They hate uncertainty.