Friday, April 24, 2015

Fired Up and Ready to Go--Obama Speaks to Organizing for America

++President Obama spoke to the Summit of Organizing for America yesterday and reiterated the achievements of his administration. Then he gave a full-throated defense of the TransPacific Trade Agreement.

++He twined the TPP with the Iranian Nuclear Deal by saying he did them because both were right. To the load cheers to the Iran deal he emphasized that TPP gives discomfort to Democrats, while the Iran deal gives discomfort to Republicans. 

++He listed all the actions he has done for the middle class, the economy, the manufacturing sector which has seen the greatest growth since the 1990s. He then said,"Do you think I woke up one day and decided to tear all that down?"

++President Obama was on the offense about the trade agreements recalling the effects of NAFTA when he started out his political career in Illinois. He said that was some years ago and that his administration learned from the trade deals in the past. 

++I thought it interesting that he said that Canada and Mexico were in the TPP and that the faults of NAFTA were being corrected in this trade deal. You may recall that he campaigned on re-negotiating NAFTA something his "progressive critics" have criticized him for not doing. 

++President Obama said that progressive critics of TPP always refer to NAFTA but do not mention specific contents of TPP. 

++He went on to argue pretty much the points Ed Klein's VOX piece had about his vision of America in trade agreements and that without America China would establish agreements beneficial to their workers at our expense.

++His shot at MSNBC sparked a reaction from Ed Schultz of the ED Show who challenged the President to a debate because Ed "knows" TPP is wrong for America. He interrupted his guest Bernie Sanders to play a cut of President Obama at the OFA summit. 

++President Obama ran through a list of achievements and mentioned that Loretta Lynch, the first black, woman Attorney General had finally been confirmed. 

++For someone who keeps saying he's not running for office again,he had his spark, easy humor, and eloquence back. For someone like myself, he is the best salesman for his policies and his appearance around town changes the whole dynamic.

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