Everybody who knows me personally is well aware that I have strongly supported the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, and that I am very pleased with his election victory. It has been my feeling that Obama has the intelligence, the real life experience, the temperament, political skills, and (in most cases) the policy inclinations that could make him an outstanding president. At any rate, we will soon be able to find out.
One policy area that has concerned me is trade policy. Obama claims to believe in free markets and free trade, and I have no doubt that he understands the intellectual arguments in support of those principles. Unfortunately, his Senate actions in these areas suggest that his support of free trade is mainly as an abstract idea.
A Wall Street Journal editorial has a useful suggestion. Let the outgoing president take the political heat for some free trade deals which have merit but not popular support. I do not have much regard for the WSJ when it comes to purely political issues (the war on terror, judicial appointments, etc.), but when it comes to economic issues, they really know their subject. Check out the following:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122645083164919237.html
