Stuck In Reverse

It is bad enough that President Obama is reversing his campaign pledge and supporting Bush-era trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama. Starting this week in Chicago, the US will be hosting the first major trade negotiations since the "Battle in Seattle" World Trade Organisation talks came here in 1999. This occasion is for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with a wide range of industrialised and developing Pacific Rim countries.

As part of his plan to revive the US economy and create jobs, Obama claims he will be unveiling "a trade agreement for the 21st century". Ironically, though, he will be pushing the same "Nafta-style" trade pacts he campaigned against, and to howls of protest from his own electoral base. Let us not forget what he said:

"I voted against Cafta, never supported Nafta, and will not support Nafta-style trade agreements in the future," Obama told Ohio voters (pdf) in 2008. "While Nafta gave broad rights to investors, it paid only lip service to the rights of labor and the importance of environmental protection."
~ from Obama's "21st Century Trade Deals" Look a Lot Like the Same Bad Policies He Campaigned Against by Timothy A. Wise and Kevin Gallagher ~

I've got to admit that I feel sorry for the president's ardent supporters. They've had to spend the better part of three years trying to explain away each and every campaign pledge Obama has run away from.

In the beginning of his presidency, it was easy to do. "Give the man some time," was a common refrain. Later on, the frequent argument was that Tea Party Republicans had backed him into a corner and he brokered the "best deal" he could. After a while, however, it must get harder and harder not to see the writing on the wall. Like so many other elected officials, his campaign pledges don't amount to a hill of beans. They aren't meant to be taken seriously. Obama, like most candidates, said whatever he thought would help to get him elected.

How else do you explain the fact that he has backed away from his campaign rhetoric like it's the plague!!