Anyone want to try and defend the President on the TPP?

[Laelth]

15. I have absolutely no interest in defending the TPP.

I will, however, take a stab at defending the President, here.

Here's what I can say:

I like second term Barack Obama a lot better than first term Barack Obama. Now that he's "settled into the job," so to speak, and now that he's freed from worrying about his re-election, he has become a better President. Take Syria, for example. From what I can tell, he was under serious pressure to invade Syria for several years. Our Western European allies wanted it. They're almost completely dependent on natural gas from Russia, and they don't like that. They wanted a pipeline trough Syria to the Mediterranean to bring natural gas from northern Iraq just to ease the pressure of Russia's monopoly. Despite this intense pressure, the President delayed, and when the matter came to a crisis, he managed to keep us out of war. That was impressive, but it seems to be his MO in regards to actions he does not want to take. He delays, and then waits for the right moment to blow up the whole idea.

That's what I am hoping for with the TPP. He may not actually like it, but he's under intense pressure to do it from both our oligarchs and from powerful members of the Party that he leads. Perhaps he's keeping his options open, saying the right things to our oligarchs and to the party faithful who want the TPP, but then quietly gumming up the works behind the scenes. I recall that he was recently scheduled to meet in Asia regarding the TPP, but, somehow, he found an excuse not to go (it may have been the Syria crisis). In any event, I suspect (when I am feeling generous) that the President may, indeed, oppose the TPP. He may simply be delaying and waiting for the right moment to blow up the negotiations and take it off the table, as he did with plans to invade Syria.



That's as much as I can do on this. Of course, if he ends up signing the TPP in something close to its present form, I'll be furious, and I will regret having given him the benefit of the doubt, but, at this moment in time, I am willing to wait and see how this plays out. That said, I encourage all of us to keep our eyes on this and to agitate--i.e. give the President cover in the event that he sees an opportunity to back out.

-Laelth