Obama's midwest bus tour message backfires

[CHIMO]

While on a bus tour this week across a midwest ravaged by deindustrialisation, President Barack Obama has ironically been touting job-killing free trade agreements.

Mitt Romney deemed the road trip, which goes through an archipelago of shuttered factories and mills, as Obama's "Magical Misery Tour", though the former governor and CEO would undoubtedly promote the same free trade policies even more fervently. Obama won Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois in 2008, but is set to lose them in 2012 if he remains on the free trade bandwagon. Last week, he visited Michigan, the epicentre of American manufacturing's decimation.

A May report from the liberal Economic Policy Institute (pdf) finds that the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which was primarily touted as a job creator, has cost the US 682,900 jobs, 61% of them in manufacturing. Many jobs have moved south to Mexico, resulting in a switch in the two countries' trade deficit. In 1993, the US had a $1.6bn trade surplus with Mexico; in 2010, the tides turned and Mexico held a trade surplus of $97.2bn over the US.

The consequences of Nafta have not been positive in Mexico, either: the US has seen a historic flow of Mexican immigrants across the border, driven by the closure of plants unable to compete with transnational companies, the elimination of peasant agriculture, and rising consumer prices have driven a wave of immigrants across the US border. This convoy of economic refugees has weakened only recently, mostly due to the downturn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/16/obama-free-trade-midwest

[virgogal]

1. This administration is giving me a big,fat headache.

[BeyondGeography]

2. This is true

It shouldn't be surprising that free trade agreements are unpopular, though politicians don't seem to comprehend it. According to the findings of an underreported November 2010 poll by the Pew Research Center, only 35% of Americans say that free trade agreements have benefited the US, while 44% say the country has been harmed. The study even found that Republican support for free trade has plummeted from 44% in November 2009, to a rock bottom 28% in 2010.

[ixion]

3. Seriously: It seems to me he's doing everything he can

to make sure he doesn't serve a second term.

What the hell was he (and his staff) thinking? :wow:

[CelticThunder]

4. Beyond pathetic.

[Demeter]

5. "Magical Misery Tour"

Instant classic.

Obama's taking a bus trip, and there's plenty of room for us liberals and progressive types...underneath, between the baggage compartment and the road....

[elocs]

6. Obama's "Magical Misery Tour"...clever name, that. Not bad.

The thing is, those little tags tend to stick.

[OwnedByFerrets]

18. Repugs are great at naming things...just look at that

liberal media moniker. Too bad they cant govern worth a shit,

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. He's out of touch with Main Street Americans

Perhaps this "Magical Misery Tour" will enlighten him.

[Fearless]

16. Very very out of touch... free trade?? He might as well be actually promoting deathpanels.

[dgibby]

8. If this is his WIF strategy,

he's headed for a one term presidency. All the 'pubs have to do is convince Jeb Bush, Christy, or that Rubio to run, and Obama's probably history.

[yurbud]

13. WIF?

[dgibby]

14. Winning the Future. n/t

[yurbud]

19. isn't that also the sound a bat makes when it fails to hit the ball?

[dgibby]

22. Yes indeedy! n/t

[lame54]

25. isn't that WTF?...

because that's what I say every day

[bemildred]

9. I would like to suggest that imitatiing Palin is a flawed idea. nt

[madrchsod]

10. "sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come"

[saras]

11. It's NOT Magical Mystery Tour. If they need a rock metaphor, it's more like the Mud Shark.

Acetylene nirvana hemorrhoid. Talkin' bout your hemorrhoids, baby.
Steamroller. Talkin' bout your hemorrhoids, baby.

With the American public playing the part of Flo & Eddie.

[Hawkowl]

12. Fucking. Idiot.

He should take the advisors feeding him this guaranteed election defeat bullshit and have them shot. Seriously, if this is the best he can do, he is fucked.

[MissDeeds]

24. If he's our candidate in 2012

not only is he f**ked, so are we.

[txlibdem]

26. But even 1 term Prez gets his full salary FOR LIFE and secret service protection for 10 yrs

Why should he care that his ineptitude and right-leaning policies would plunge the nation into a living nightmare. "He got over."

Why Mr. President? "I got mine. F*k you all!!!" :fistbump:

[fasttense]

15. Add to that all the stuff he said about Unions having to sacrifice.

And that there are people who retire at 55 with 80% of their pay. It seems this bus trip of Obama's is more like a right-wing talking point trip. He seems to be Catapulting the RepubliCON propaganda.

[Fruittree]

23. Try reading his entire comments instead of

just the snippets that allow you to believe what you want to believe anyway.

[txlibdem]

27. Do you mean these?

Obama once seemed to understand the deep-seated popular opposition to free trade. During the 2008 election, he released a mailer attacking Hillary Clinton, whose husband signed Nafta: "Is Hillary Clinton running away from her own record on trade deals that have cost Ohio nearly 50,000 jobs?"

...

It's not clear that the media or anyone else is picking up on the mundane details of Obama's new talking points. But if they do, the president's push for free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia is unlikely to be well received: the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition estimates that 57,000 Minnesotans are at risk of offshoring or displacement under a Korea deal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/16/obama-free-trade-midwest
... from the link in the OP




President Obama urges Republicans to reach agreement to move free-trade deals
By Vicki Needham - 07/15/11 05:38 PM ET

For the second time this week, President Obama urged congressional Republicans to pass three pending trade agreements delayed over the inclusion of a worker retraining program.

"I've got three trade deals sitting ready to go, and these are all trade deals that the Republicans told me were their top priorities," Obama said Friday during a press conference to discuss efforts to raise the debt ceiling.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/171847-president-obama-urges-resolution-on-worker-retraining-program-to-move-to-free-trade-deals

[razorman]

17. I'm rather uncomfortable with him going on what is obviously a campaign trip

on the taxpayers' dime. I will also be interested in seeing if he ever uses these customized buses again, after this tour.

[underpants]

20. Nice to see that DUer lets Republican talking points lead them around by the nose

:sarcasm:

[Tutankhamun]

21. So when he promised to "renegotiate NAFTA"

While campaigning for 2008, did I just misinterpret him? Did "renegotiate" mean he was going to sign it again, but in bigger, bolder letters?