Obama’s Cowardice and McCain’s Heroism on Globalization
by tdaxp ~ March 3rd, 2008
UPDATE 1-Canada defends Obama over NAFTA flap – Forbes.com
“There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA,” the embassy statement said. “We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.”The consulate’s written report of the meeting had left the suggestion that Obama’s words on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not be taken too seriously, prompting an angry denial from the Obama campaign.
The backstory here is that Obama has promised to withdraw from NAFTA unless declining American industries are shielded from competition. Obama sympathizers, and the Canadian consulte, both have assumed that Obama is being two-faced, and that he will support America’s free-trade policy. He is demagoging the subject, so the theory goes, in order to win votes.
Certainly true, and no worse than Romney promising to bring old-line jobs back to Michigan.
But much worse than John McCain’s consistently open stance on immigration. Globalization in capital and goods (“Free Trade”) and globalization in labor (“immigration”) are two sides of the same coin. Only John McCain has been “talking straight” and supporting both. This has real political consequences, as McCain has to break less campaign promises once he starts governing, and thus burns less political capital upon entering office.
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Good thing McCain’s preserving his political capital for the fight against Thimerosol!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/john-mccain-ent.html
Seriously though this is a frequent problem with Democrats though. On the one hand it is good that almost all the people that make it into office and their policy people believe in free trade and globalization. On the other hand they’re ‘forced’ to pander to unions that refuse to grow up and realize that manufacturing jobs are not their birthright. I wonder if even the unions believe Obama and Clinton when they talk about protectionism, or whether they just want to be indulged and feel important.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Oh God, between your contextual use of the words cowardice, heroism, and “shielded from competition”, I am not even going to carry on further conversation about this op-ed until you decide to stop misrepresenting McCain’s opposition.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Adrian,
Regarding thimerosal, from the FDA [1]:
“The various mercury guidelines are based on epidemiological and laboratory studies of methyl mercury, whereas thimerosal is a derivative of ethyl mercury. Because they are different chemical entities – ethyl- versus methylmercury – different toxicological profiles are expected. There is, therefore, an uncertainty that arises in applying the methylmercury-based guidelines to thimerosal. Lacking definitive data on the comparative toxicities of ethyl- versus methylmercury, FDA considered ethyl- and methyl-mercury as equivalent in its risk evaluation. There are some data and studies bearing directly on thimerosal toxicity and these are summarized in this Section.
Allergic responses to thimerosal are described in the clinical literature, with these responses manifesting themselves primarily in the form of delayed-type local hypersensitivity reactions, including redness and swelling at the injection site (Cox and Forsyth 1988; Grabenstein 1996). Such reactions are usually mild and last only a few days. Some authors postulate that the thiosalicylate component is the major determinant of allergic reactions (Goncalo et al. 1996). In a clinical setting, however, it is usually not possible to determine whether local reactions are caused by thimerosal or other vaccine components.”
“I wonder if even the unions believe Obama and Clinton when they talk about protectionism, or whether they just want to be indulged and feel important.”
As the former is a well-known cause of political action while the latter is not, I assume the unions are devoting resources into politics in the hope of increasing the welfare of their (often older and uneducated) members.
Jeffrey,
Could you rephrase?
[1] http://www.fda.gov/CBER/vaccine/thimerosal.htm
March 4th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Fareed Zakaria points out that this anti-NAFTA talk is scaring the whole world and making them preemptively nostalgic for Bush. McCain could really make an issue of this. He should go to Ohio to some factory that has a lot of foreign exports and be photographed with its workers.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/117841/output/print
March 4th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Lexington – do those exist?
March 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
This page suggests a few places to start calling.
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/itd/2007EAwards.htm
Like this one:
http://www.marathonsensors.com/msi_announcements.htm#exporter_of_the_year_2007
Five minutes on the Internet to find those pages. A day of making phone calls for someone in McCain’s office and he could have something set up.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
There is a growing (albeit slowly) “Green” belt in Ohio & Kentucky. Also, a few textile and tools companies have managed to leverage high quality and determined sales development (via the web and catalogs) into a notch in the market instead of going out of business like everyone else. Though I live in NC, I work for a tool company like that right now.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Adrian, yes.
Look at this page:
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/itd/2007EAwards.htm
Look especially at the winner of the State’s export prize:
http://www.marathonsensors.com/
That took me a couple of seconds on the Internet.
Someone from McCain’s office could hit the phones and set something up in a few hours, I’m sure.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Lexington,
Thanks for the web link!
Eddie,
UNL’s hometown is currently trying to copy some of North Carolina’s success in the “Antelope Valley” program. Of course, from Ohio’s perspective, their political class may be too far gone to execute something that complex.
[1] http://journalstar.com/articles/2008/03/03/news/local/doc47cb5df565427463687242.txt
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