Obama's midwest bus tour message backfires

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/16/obama-free-trade-midwest

While on a bus tour this week across a midwest ravaged by deindustrialisation, President Barack Obama has ironically been touting job-killing free trade agreements.

Mitt Romney deemed the road trip, which goes through an archipelago of shuttered factories and mills, as Obama's "Magical Misery Tour", though the former governor and CEO would undoubtedly promote the same free trade policies even more fervently. Obama won Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois in 2008, but is set to lose them in 2012 if he remains on the free trade bandwagon. Last week, he visited Michigan, the epicentre of American manufacturing's decimation.

A May report from the liberal Economic Policy Institute (pdf) finds that the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which was primarily touted as a job creator, has cost the US 682,900 jobs, 61% of them in manufacturing. Many jobs have moved south to Mexico, resulting in a switch in the two countries' trade deficit. In 1993, the US had a $1.6bn trade surplus with Mexico; in 2010, the tides turned and Mexico held a trade surplus of $97.2bn over the US.

The consequences of Nafta have not been positive in Mexico, either: the US has seen a historic flow of Mexican immigrants across the border, driven by the closure of plants unable to compete with transnational companies, the elimination of peasant agriculture, and rising consumer prices have driven a wave of immigrants across the US border. This convoy of economic refugees has weakened only recently, mostly due to the downturn.

More at the link --

[dtexdem]

1. Don't blame the left, Obama is blowing it.

That old DLC magic just don't work no more.

[girl gone mad]

4. He doubled down on neoliberal failure.

I hear it was the pragmatic thing to do.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ixion]

2. Who's dumbass idea was that?

Talking to people already hard pressed for jobs about so-called 'free trade' agreements that have single-handedly eliminated those jobs.

Not very bright, unless, of course, you don't give a crap about jobs and you're pushing someone's agenda.

[Dr Fate]

3. At least his bus was made in the USA.

nt

[Broderick]

5. HAHA

;)

[PufPuf23]

6. Oopsie. Canada.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is barnstorming the heartland to boost US jobs in a taxpayer-financed luxury bus the government had custom built -- in Canada, The Post has learned.

The $1.1 million vehicle, one of two that Quebec-based Prevost sold the government, has been tricked out by the Secret Service with state-of-the-art security features and creature comforts.

It's a VIP H3-45 model, the company's top of the line, and is used by major traveling rock bands



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/canucklehead_obama_bus_ted_gyztvw89k5MyKNS4B7Qp7O#ixzz1VKGR7qmB

[Dr Fate]

8. Well, they ARE our allies and they look sorta like us. Close enough. n/t

n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Tennessee is where the SS outfitted this thing

[Dr Fate]

13. With 100% American, Union made parts, no doubt. nt

nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Well actually... on a serious note...

the gear is so dang specialized that no, not really. And this is one of those RARE exceptions I might make.

Of course there is another problem... isn't the US government supposed to source all, at least 80% in the US?

SQUIRREL...

[bvar22]

21. Was the bus driver American?

At least that would be ONE job... temporary,
but, HEY, It counts.
Quick, somebody put it on The LIST.


Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Actually specially trained Secret Service Agent

[Bluebear]

28. !!

[B Calm]

7. I look for Obama to go after repealing NAFTA any day now. Have HOPE

[Zax2me]

24. He does that Al Gore might get pissed n/a

[RKP5637]

9. The whole thing has been pretty lame IMO. First I heard of it was a WTF to me.

This country knows what the problems are ... it's getting embarrassing to watch/listen to him. He just doesn't get it, just doesn't get it. He needs a lot of new advisers IMO.

[whathehell]

12. Correct....He's lamer than lame. n/t

[glowing]

17. He's trying to sell it. We know where his billion dollar campaign is coming from.

It's bad enough that people ain't buying it anymore and pretty speeches aren't going to placate things much longer. I seriously expect something like what happened in England and Greece etc to flair up here any day now.

It wouldn't matter what corporately sponsored President was standing there trying to well us a load of crap. And no one believes he doesn't have the power to push for real reforms and jobs for Americans when we just had Bush cram a load of shit down our throats for 8yrs. Bush didn't care what people wanted or congress. He just sent cheney into congress to snarl at them and the votes lined up. Look at the Iraq war BS

[RKP5637]

20. They had a flash mob recently in a 7-Eleven in Germantown, Maryland. I think it's

going to happen more and more. I understand their frustration.

Many people see no opportunity, there is no way forward for many, many with once good jobs unemployed, education does not help, growing debt, the banksters, wall street and mega-corporations on the take, all of the corruption in this country, the huge wealth gap, the fact that we now have the widest wealth gap of industrialized nations, union busting, 54 million in poverty, millions on food stamps, on and on, and this is just the beginning of the list.

Congress 13% approval, Obama's 39%.

It's a huge WTF. This country is in a national crisis. People have had with all of the bullshit. The time for pretty speeches is over!

Same here, "I seriously expect something like what happened in England and Greece etc to flair up here any day now."

Many people now have nothing to lose. I also would not be surprised if the US moved into some type of police state to preserve the status quo for the few percent holding all of the wealth of the country.

[glowing]

26. Not with all the weapons. U forget how many little military wannabes are out there with all their

guns. One thing the paranoid right has always held firm to.. Shoot more than one liberal owns a weapon. If the military state became too obvious, it wouldnt work. I think they r beginning to realize they may just have to give back or find private islands to go hide in and we create a just society without them.

[RKP5637]

31. I vote for private islands for them, self-financed, of course. IMO we would

be far better off without them. I had a republican tell me the other day, "well, what would you do if the monied picked up and left America if they had to pay more in taxes." My comment was similar to yours, "then, we could build a far more fair country for all without them! We don't need them!"

[Tesha]

11. And he's also taking heat because his Prevost bus is made in Canada.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/obamas-made-in-canada-tour-bus-draws-fire/article2132454/

Obama’s $1.1-million 'made-in-Canada' tour bus draws fire

A luxury bus being used this week by U.S. President Barack
Obama and built in part by a Quebec-based firm is causing
quite a stir.

One prominent tabloid has chastised the president for using
Canadian-made transportation during his economic recovery tour.

A New York Post piece on the bus ran with the headline:
“Canucklehead Obama bus-ted!” There was also a cheeky
insertion of a Canadian flag in a picture of the bus.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Of course there's the slight problem that there *AREN'T*
any American-made buses anymore; even MCI, long the stalwart
of the bus transportation industry, is Canadian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Coach_Industries

Tesha

[Dr Fate]

14. But that is NOT the fault of centrist/conservative Democrats.

The fact that no buses are made in the USA is NOT the fault of centrist/conservative Democrats.

The GOP and the media should certainly be blamed though. And Nader for giving us 8 years of Bush.

[appal_jack]

27. Sorry, NAFTA.

Yes, I know that NAFTA was begun by Reagan, and refined by Poppy Bush, but it was Clinton who pushed it through Congress on a 'Fast Track' and then signed it. The decline of US manufacturing jobs since then has been precipitous.

-app

[Hydra]

30. Nader didn't give us Bush, SCOTUS did.

And the Centrists are simply continuing Bush policies, so they get and should get no sympathy for trying to emulate Republicans.

[BlueJazz]

15. Jeez...Obama...

:banghead: :banghead:

[Remember Me]

19. I'd been told he was bright -- no evidence of that here, is there? nt

[bvar22]

22. Those in the Top 1%...

...would agree that Obama is pretty bright.
They have cleaned up under his administration.


The DLC New Team
Chamber of Commerce Approval a Prerequisite

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254886&kaid=86&subid=85



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[me b zola]

25. Tin-ear Obama

FFS, i don't even know what to say about an administration who would push NAFTA now that the effects of NAFTA are being felt far and wide as the economy tanks.

[blkmusclmachine]

29. 2 tin ears.

n/t