++The Imperial Post yesterday ran an analysis of how Presidents in the second term buck their party in seeking policy priorities. In W's case, immigration reform, which went down in flames. In Obama's case, Fast Track Authority for TPP.
++Sherrod Brown reports that his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have been lobbied, cajoled, pressured more by Obama officials than on any other piece of legislation, including the Affordable Care Act.
++President Obama has seemed almost emotional on this front after speaking at NIKE on the West Coast. In comments after comments, he went after Elizabeth Warren, as "just a politician like all of us", for her opposition to Fast Track.
++If progressives gave President Obama the benefit of the doubt on other issues, this is one area where they are united against him.
++Chris Weigant at the Huffington Post writes today "Slowing the Fast Track Down", which adequately summarizes both cases.
++Weigant gets at Warren's insistence for the President to de-classify the trade agreement. President Obama has argued this is the most progressive trade agreement ever--even though trade unions are against it and few Democrats back it. Why? Warren's point is that while Congress can read the whole agreement,they can not disclose its contents. But--and this is where Weigant chimes in--our major corporations and their lawyers can not only read it but negotiate it. So why not print it before Fast Track is approved.
++President Obama's point is that there are several committees negotiating each section of it and that it is being constructed in a collaborative manner. He also is quite write that Presidents do this in a whole host of agreements.
++The intensity of President Obama's rhetoric on this issue also mirrors the shortening of the congressional time frame--less than ten days left before adjournment.
++In some ways this is like the Iran nuclear talks where you have a multi-party negotiation where Congress can only blow it up by making exotic demands.
++Progressives still point to NAFTA and President Obama's 2008 campaign pledge to re-negotiate it. He claims that this agreement is, in effect, a renegotiation because both Canada and Mexico are involved.
++The other overarching image I have is that China and others are cleaning our clock and making multilateral deals around the world, which will eventually freeze us out.
++Here the Obama Administration blundered by not joining with China on its Infrastructure bank, while Australia, Western Europe and the Israelis did.
++Congress has also helped by drastically cutting aid while China signs comprehensive agreements with Pakistan, India and Africa, leaving us in the lurch.
++President Obama is pushing TPP as his counter to this trend. Unfortunately,both parties seem content in letting the status quo remain.
++I am still agnostic about the whole thing but I can understand both positions. That's why Chris Weigant's piece is so useful
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