CHICAGO – Trade policy – and specifically, opposition to our current trade policy – is one of the most volatile issues in the uprising that I describe in my book. Across the political spectrum, opposition to pacts like NAFTA and China PNTR is strong, and getting stronger. You see this from the anti-globalization protests on the Left, and Minuteman protests (which I disagree with) on the Right. Underneath it all is a feeling that our international economic policies are designed to enrich the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
This was the topic of my latest newspaper column, which looks at how Barack Obama has a huge opportunity to use trade against John McCain – if he decides to shun the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party and adopt a more populist posture on kitchen table economic issues. I discussed this assertion on Fox Business yesterday from Chicago. Watch it here.
Progressives have a strong case to make on NAFTA and trade policy in general – a case that can help us win this election. We’ve learned time and time again that when there is a strong progressive pressure system demanding Democrats take majority positions on key issues like trade and the war, we not only get closer to concrete change, but we also win elections.
I’m heading to Ohio tomorrow for a series of events with Progress Ohio (full schedule here), and I expect NAFTA and trade policy in general to be a major topic of conversation, especially considering THE UPRISING’s chapter on Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown – one of the country’s greatest fair trade leaders.
And while we’re on the topic of Brown, he’s involved in some very good news as it relates to the presidential election and trade.
According to the Windsor Star, the Obama campaign asked Brown to lead a campaign-sponsored conference call with reporters to hammer John McCain for his support of NAFTA. Obama has done a bit of a dance around trade issues – but it’s a good sign that he’s asking such well-known fair trade leaders to effectively speak for the campaign on the issue. In doing so, Obama is moving closer toward embracing the uprising, which is a marked change from the Clinton era, when Bob Rubin and the Establishment were the major "progressive" voices on globalization. Here’s hoping we get more power-challenging messages out of Obama as this campaign heats up.
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- Iranian Dissident Akbar Ganji: Praise for Obama’s “No Meddling” Pledge, but President Should Address Human Rights Abuses
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- Please Welcome Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, Candidate for US Senate
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Sherrod Brown for VEEP!
Welcome back, David
IIRC Fast Track expired last year. Doesn’t that mean that future trade agreements have to be approved by Congress? Hence the holdup with the trade agreement with Columbia?
Quiet here today…Is everyone at Echans get together??? But if you are here digg this for David and the Lake…
no, no brown for vp….
We need him here in ohio……sorry, remember the 8 years of taft crap we’ve had here? completely trounced our economy…….and all of the dewine years and voinavich? we worked hard to get brown into office, and to get wilson to replace him, i’m not so happy about handing our hard work over for him to be a placard in the white house…….and even though some of his votes have let me down, he’s still a start and our state is in bad shape.
nope, find someone else to be vp……..we need all the good guys we can get right now. we’re barely hangin’ on…..repub legislature and strickland tryin’ to do all he can, and it’s still a mess. ag forced to resign, we aren’t out of the woods yet.
replace voinavich, then you can have brown.
Good afternoon, David.
Just now getting around to watching this mornings MTP, and, right on cue, Lindsay Graham, flacking for McCain, going after unions wrt NAFTA (shocked!).
I would very much like Obama or appropriate surrogates to step up huge on this and swat these creeps and their fear-mongering out of the debate.
If Obama is having Sherrod Brown answer questions about NAFTA that is good news.
Cavuto never changes. “Your facts don’t agree with my talking points, David. And don’t interrupt when I’m talking over you.” Sheesh.
How do you remain so calm with pinheads like this?
Agreed. I’m not forgiving him his MCA vote (his apology notwithstanding), but this is his bread and butter.
Going after Unions because they attack NAFTA?
In this political climate is Lindsay trying to make the Unions more popular:) There is a reason why McCain is running away from Bush its more than the war, its EVERYTHING that has gone wrong. Every Conservative think tank idea that Bush has put into place with a GOP House, Senate and the fear of 9/11 creating a Shock Doctrine that would get everything no matter how crazy passed.
To bad it didn’t work but Lindsay and McCain seem to think the problem was Bush personally and not the GOP policy’s.
After this election I wonder if/hope that the GOP will blame McCain and not the Message for their failures.
The GOP seems to think that supporting NAFTA is a good idea this election? Is this a is your brain on drugs commercial? I know some Fox Viewers and there is no amount of Cool Aid that could convince them that NAFTA is a good idea.
Agree. He needs to be representing us in the Senate for the next 20 years, at least.
Joe-Bama sure does have good messages but have you tried cooking a message up for dinner?
As he has amply demonstrated during the FISA fiasco and attending kabuki charade, his messages have nothing to do with his actions, or non-existent ‘principles’.
We can assume he will govern to the right of Ronald Reagan on these issues.
As with Clinton’s pitching millions off of welfare, a (D) Presidency enabled by a (D) Congress can often get away with things the (R)’s could not.
A real ‘uprising’ would be accompanied by a social movement congenial to 3rd party electoral politics, not just more and better Least-Worsting.
Neil is trying to blame the Depression on protectsonism? Funny I thought an over valued, unregulated stock market collapsed just like what is happening now.
I’d really like to see the electorate do the same thing with NAFTA (and Lindsay and MaCain and their flacks) as they did with Chimpy’s SS privatizing scheme – with no prompting from Democrats in Congress, they rejected it loudly (because it’s just a lousy idea) and without mercy.
Didn’t Obama’s fundraising drop off this month to about equal with McCain’s I bet all those last minute pleas for cash emails I got after the house FISA vote might be the last big money Obama sees for awhile.
Remember Obama made his cash from the Netroots not big corporations. Sure Obama has lots of college kid support and they certainly have computers but as I recall from my own college days college kids don’t have much money.
African Americans tend to suffer from economic discrimination which tends to lower their ownership of computers and money.
So lets face it we gave Obama a very good portion of his internet money. We don’t like FISA. I wonder if we keep not giving to Obama how long it will take for the MSM to put two and two together?
Hopefully the Obama campaign is smarter than they are and changes course before the MSM makes this a story.
Straight line from unpopularity of a stance to campaign dollars in just a couple of days – have I lived too long?
That would be great!
he’s got plenty of Wall Street money:
http://www.counterpunch.org/martens05052008.html
as long as the axiom of automatic support for the least worst holds strong, (D) candidates are free to ignore the strident concerns of the grassroots, no matter how swamped their fax amchines get.
OK NAFTA is bad for the GOP but do we have any polling about how bad it is for the GOP? Also shouldn’t NAFTA be the kind of issue that could tear away 30%ers from McCain? Why support FISA when it won’t get you a single 30%er vote? Why not go after NAFTA which is one of the few issues that will?
Hilary lost because she took the Netroots support for granted in the Primary and assumed that she could make a play for the 30%ers by supporting the war.
Obama seems to have decided to Sister Souljah us on FISA to get 30%er votes.
70% is greater than 30% Obama
Also I know the media made a big deal about Bill putting Sister Souljah in her place for some rude comments and the Media said it helped Bill get the White vote.
But I don’t know a single white person who has ever said Sister Souljah changed their vote.
The MSM creates the facts of their own reality and if unchallenged hope to pass it into history.
Cavuto: I see myself losing at this point so we’re going to go to commercial.
WAY TO GO, DAVID!!!
February 1, 2008, was $2,872,128, and we’re still in the primary season.
Those numbers seem old I’m sure fresher numbers would make your case better still almost 3 million is a drop in the bucket to Obama. Compared to what we gave him again what number is greater Netroots cash or Corporate cash?
If Obama decides to grab the Corporate cash bird in the Bush, then he risks loosing the two Netroots birds he already has.
Politics polistix! We beat back our thunderstorms just in time for me to come cause a ruckus here.
No doubt OT but, well, hilarious to nitwits like me, anyway:
It seems the pugnics are shaking in their oversize boots because the dreaded Barr may be raised in prez-campaign midst. hee hee.hahahahahaha, cough, ahem. Whut wuz that about settling things all neat ‘n proper L-O-N-G before the Democrats settled down and accomplished somethin?
Pugnics, smooth as oil on a beach, as it were.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..08517.html
AND THEN THERE’s SOME SERIOUS GLOATING TO TOSS, if I may.
Speaking of money and Progressives, some before the last election got all hot & bothered, ultimately causing BlueAmerica to withdraw its support of Senator Sherrod Brown in order to placate them.
Fortunately, Brown is so popular a Progressive back home in OH that he won anyway. When BluAmer stopped support, I contributed directly to Brown.
Why, you’re welcome folks. Thanks. I knew you’d understand eventually.
BTW, I’m not sure you’d want him as Veep. That would be a great loss to the Senate, which needs all the TRUE Progressives it can get, apparently. Brown has been an absolute fireball of positive activity practically as soon as his feet hit the ground in the Senate Chamber.
d-mac at #4: I absolutely agree with you. Brown should stay in the Senate, because he IS THAT GOOD! ;->
I missed that, but may be we can make of list of the ones who should go. Let’s start with Kathleen Parker who often shows up both in the newspaper and on Chris Matthews…a snarky airhead who hints at racist comments. Get the net. Who’s next? Laura Ingraham has some pinch hitters who sound brainless and rude. They are pretty easily ignored unless you hit the button at the wrong time.
[Snort] Isn’t it just too schadenfreudelicious for words? Little Bobby Barr may end up turning Georgia into a contested state. It’s enough to make a cat laugh!
OT, but hilarious:
CNN headline about Libertarian candidate Barr:
”GOP fears Barr could spoil McCain’s bid”
Perhaps we should consider contributing to the upstart Congressman’s campaign…..
OT, I agree, and all I can say is, hahahahahahaha!
My bad. I should have put a snark tag after the snarky quote. I was just giving the short version of Cavuto.
I have a standard for Alan Dershowitz, “I’m right and if you disagree with anything I say you’re anti-Semitic.”
Book Salon is up
I guess for Tweety it’s fingers in the ears and LA LA LA LA LA?!
CNN: ”Tom Ridge not ruling out a VP run”
ummmmmmmmmm. No.
I think Sherrod Brown would be an excellent VP choice. It would assure Ohio, he is a true progressive, particularly on fair trade and economic justice. And his wife is a great person.
One of the things I worry about is that Obama has hooked up with the same people who helped Bill Clinton make the financial sector of the economy too large and much too controlling. With assistance from folks like Phil Gramm at just the wrong time it also was de-regulated. I’m hoping Obama finds a different kind of economist, someone like the person who wrote The Squandering of America (can’t remember his name just now). Kevin Phillips has also laid out how serious the problem in Bad Money.