“Forty-four senators in the Democratic caucus voted Tuesday to block action on a crucial ‘trade promotion authority’ bill, delivering an embarrassing setback to President Obama, who strongly supports the bill”. Yet the big question on trade: where is Hillary Clinton’s voice? Washington Post,
The rejection of the Obama-supported “trade promotion authority” bill “sow[s] doubts about U.S. leadership among friends and foes around the world. Leaders of both parties swore that this would not be the final word… in part because because there are still enough Democrats in the Senate… who favor trade.
“Still, it’s remarkable how much power the anti-trade left wing of the Democratic Party has come to wield within the Senate… Obama wants trade promotion authority – “fast-track” authority” so that he can push through “his proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership… Progressives oppose the trade deal on the spurious grounds that it would kill American jobs.
The opposition on the left has gotten so powerful that “it has turned… Clinton, into a quiet follower on the issue, rather than the forceful leader she once was… while her opponents [have much to say on trade], all she has mustered are a couple of anodyne remarks. ‘Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security’.”
The Clinton who once stood firmly in her beliefs and posed a problem for opponents is now dwindling back into the void as a quiet, non-committal bystander – supporting ideas instead of actions. Is this timid candidate for president who we want as the leader of our free world?
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