The question during the UNLV debate about whether normalization of trade with China was responsible for harmful imports of Chinese goods was based on all kinds of false assumptions, with the result, as Barack pointed out, that it tended to focus attention on the wrong problem and therefore to suggest the wrong solution.
Normalization of trade essentially means allowing China into the World Trade Organization (where countries agree over time to lower trade barriers) and lowering taxes on Chinese goods coming into the United States. Normalizing trade relations does NOT mean that you are required to repeal the applicability of health or product safety rules. In fact, the WTO agreements on trade specifically exempt health and safety laws. States remain completely free to regulate health and safety.
So, the problem is not that we lowered taxes on Chinese goods and starting treating them like goods from other countries, but that we aren't exercising our right to ensure that Chinese goods meet our health and safety standards.
The latest Washington Post Poll is bad news for John Edwards:
Here are the numbers:
Clinton: 43%Obama: 27%Edwards: 14%Richardson: 3%All others: 4%Unsure / none: 9%
Former Senator Edwards has been running for president for six years and was the party's vice presidential nominee in 2004 and he is at 14 percent -- roughly only half the number for Senator Obama and only 10 points ahead of Bill Richardson. In other words, John Edwards poll numbers are closer to those of Bill Richardson than to Barack Obama. To have been at this for so long and to have those kinds of numbers has to be deeply disappointing.
I don't say this to be critical of Senator Edwards. The guy has a great message. But this has got to be very disappointing to him.
Meanwhile, though Hillary Clinton remains the clear frontrunner, the momentum is all with Barack Obama.
With California seeking to move its primary to an early date, this may be a year in which the California primary actually matters. So, for those who are wondering how the Senator's announcement played out here....
The LA Times ran a photo on page 1, but put the story on page 17. The story was largely a summary of the speech, with lots of quotations and little editorializing. Prominent themes were lack of experience, early opposition to the war, the Lincoln legacy, comparisons to the Kennedys. charisma and the historic nature of a strong black candidacy.
Rudy Giuliani was in the state addressing a Republican convention and got a story of similar length on page 23, but no photo on page 1.
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran the stories about Obama's announcement and Giuliani's visits side by side on page 1, below the fold. They got equal space. The story about the announcement was the same as that which ran in the New York Times. Interestingly, the story about Giuliani emphasized the fact that Giuliani compared Bush to Lincoln. Yes, you read that correctly.
By the way, my daughter, a freshman at San Diego State University, which has 40,000 students, told me that Senator Obama is by far the most popular candidate on campus. No surprise, I suppose, but San Diego is a Republican town and so Democrats can never take anything for granted here.
I was active in the Clark campaign two years ago and think that there is something to be learned from how his website operated. Anyone could log on and start reading the latest posts. You could tell what was a hot topic by what everyone was posting on. This website requires the reader to do a search to read anything. There could be a lot of posts on a hot topic, but if I don't know about the topic, I won't search for it and I will never see the posts. The Clark website was like a continuous journal of the campaign. Each day I could log in and see what was going on around the country. As events unfolded, new posts constantly popped up, visible to all. You didn't have to guess at what might be hot and go searching for posts on it. I hope this website can move in that direction. It will build a stronger sense of community among the users. The Clark people had enormous spirit because we were in constant touch with each other.
Launching a presidential campaign is an extraordinarily complex task and so no one expects all the pieces to be in place from the very beginning.
I will say, though, that I think one of the missing pieces that needs to be in place before long is with respect to economic policy, including international economic policy. Since the time of Jefferson, Democrats have stood for lifting the common person into the middle class and against the use of government to bestow economic privilege (hence Jefferson's opposition to protectionist trade policies). Jefferson also preached fiscal responsibility. Our economic policy must reflect the fact that this is a democracy, not an aristocracy, and that, because the economy is for the benefit of all the people, we have a duty to manage it well. The economy may not be THE issue in November 2008, but unquestionably it will be an important issue to many. And, even those who think national security is the most important issue must understand that our military security rests on our economic strength. I hope the Senator will be second to no one in speaking about the economic challenges we face.
Senator Obama's announcement framed his campaign theme perfectly -- bringing people together to solve problems.
My friends who are skeptical about his campaign usually raise one of two concerns.
One is his lack of experience. So, I am very glad that he addressed that directly. Of course, I always point out that on inauguration day Senator Obama will have more experience in elective office than Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, or George W. Bush had when they were elected and about the same as Bill Clinton had. He also has more foreign policy experience than any of those former presidents had when they were elected. Somewhat to my surprise, some of my friends who support Senator Edwards have cited the experience issue. I point out that, by inauguration day, Senator Obama will have twice as much experience in elective office as Senator Edwards.
The other is the concern that Americans will not yet elect a black man president. Again, I think Senator Obama took the perfect approach in not addressing that directly. No amount of arguing will convince a skeptic on this issue. The only way to prove that it is possible for him to win is to win. We start by building poll numbers, which will convince people that they are not wasting their vote by voting for him. The votes, in the end, will settle the issue.
