Where is the Obama campaign's renowned hypocrisy when we need it? Austan Goolsbee himself assured us (via a meeting with Canadian officials) that Obama's NAFTA bashing was just political posturing, not indicative of policy.
But now he's reportedly offering the job of U.S. Trade Representative to a staunch protectionist:
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) could become the administration's point person on international trade. He's a terrible choice, and not just because of a history of unsavory behavior -- such as his successful efforts to win a pardon from President Clinton for convicted cocaine kingpin Carlos Vignali, or the screamingly unethical robo-calls his campaign engineered during his run for Los Angeles mayor in 2001. Becerra is a leader of the Democratic Party's protectionist wing, which opposes NAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement and most other trade deals.
Free trade irks many liberals because it can shift American jobs to other countries, but it almost invariably does more good than harm, lowering prices for goods and creating new jobs to make up for those it displaces. What's more, history shows that the last thing the country should do during an economic downturn is become more protectionist. A year after the market crash of 1929, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising U.S. tariffs dramatically in an attempt to protect jobs. It fueled a global meltdown that greatly worsened the Depression.
Oddly enough, on October 19, when the L.A. Times endorsed Obama and the nation's economic downturn had hit full speed, the paper's endorsement offered no caveats about Obama's embrace of protectionism and the terrible effects it might have on a flailing economy if enacted.
There was a whole paragraph about Sarah Palin's inadequacies (as the vice-presidential pick of the man they didn't endorse, this was of paramount importance, no doubt), and a one-line warning about a windfall profits tax (which has already disappeared, thanks to Obama's reliable rhetorical expiration dates).
Nary a word about how their candidate was so wrong on free trade in a time of economic peril that they were actively hoping Obama, qualified by virtue of his "steadiness and maturity" mind you, would flip faster than a flap-jack on the economy as soon as he was in office.
That would have been nice to know.
