Obama drags feet to avoid offending political pals

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:


Leadership is something you can't be taught or learn, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in his press conference Tuesday announcing he would not reverse his decision not to run for president. "Leadership today in America has to be about doing the big things and being courageous."

No one doubts that Christie has shown this kind of leadership in New Jersey. Call him bombastic, call him confrontational, but don't call him wobbly. He leads, and even with a Democratic-majority legislature, the state is moving in his direction.

Things are different on the national level. The day before Christie spoke in Trenton, the Obama White House officially delivered the free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress for approval. That was the 986th day that Barack Obama has been president.

He could have sent them 985 days earlier; negotiations were completed in 2006 and 2007. Or, if he were concerned they'd be deep-sixed when his fellow Democrats controlled Congress, he could have sent them 274 days earlier when Republicans took over the House.

To be sure, they are opposed by many labor union leaders and congressional Democrats. There is a nostalgia among many union and party old-timers for the days, more than 30 years distant, when the auto and steel workers' unions had nearly 2 million members.

Now each has less than half a million. But the old-timers seem to feel that somehow something like those olden days can be brought back if they oppose FTAs.

Any responsible president has to take a different view. The free trade agreements in question dismantle mostly barriers to U.S. exporters. Barriers to imports into the U.S. are either already low or nonexistent.

And these are serious markets: South Korea has the 11th- or 12th-largest economy in the world, Colombia is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, and Panama has had vigorous economic growth and is widening the Panama Canal to allow Pacific container ships into Gulf and Atlantic ports.

Democratic presidents used to lead on trade. John Kennedy's major domestic initiative in his first two years was a trade expansion act. Most Democrats voted for it and most Republicans against, with disabling amendments offered by Sen. Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of future presidents.