Obama’s deal with the devil: The dangerous treaty that has him teaming with the GOP

[Jim Lane]

10. I disagree. He could believe that.

The TPP will evidently have dozens of lengthy chapters, covering a host of major subjects (going well beyond tariff reduction). It would be pretty hard to do a deal of that complexity that didn't have at least some good and at least some bad. It's a question of weighing the two sides. Here, he sees the benefits as outweighing the costs.

I also don't think he's deliberately selling bad policies because he's getting paid to do so. If he has an ulterior motive, it's more likely to be that he, like all Presidents, wants to have an impact and leave a legacy. "Obama considered a proposal for a bad trade deal and rejected it" doesn't have much oomph. Heck, even Bush the Lesser probably rejected some bad ideas that Cheney or Rumsfeld came up with. "Obama signed a landmark trade deal that reshaped the commerce of 40% of the world's economy for a generation" is much more dramatic. That may well have a subconscious influence on his weighing of the pros and cons.