1) and i said, "but he's a "different type of politician," when it turns out he's just another politician."
You're right, one who effectively used the media to swing trade negotiations. It's a very clever stance to get what you want by threatening to renegotiate a treaty forcing the other side to meet your demands without actually having to renegotiate the entire treaty.
It proved very effective in his first meeting with Calderon. He doesn't have to renegotiate NAFTA to get what he wants, he just has to have Mexico, and to a lesser extent Canada, think that he will.
It's a much different negotiating stance then we saw over the last 8-10 years.
yes, it shows that he's just a shill for labor and environmentalists upset at the relative success NAFTA has at increasing trade between the three countries; at least he appeared to realize that the u.s. was in a weak position in a re-negotiation, hence, we aren't going to re-negotiate nafta. at least be honest about all of this- labor and environmentalists are largely anti-trade organizations, for different reasons.
all obama got out of his meeting with calderon is a) yeah, we aren't gonna touch nafta, but b) we'll work on, maybe, someday, putting together another agreement to deal with the perceived failures of NAFTA (nevermind that congress, and obama signed, a law that violates NAFTA on mexican truckers; let me know when obama comes out and tells congress to send him a law to over-turn that language. maybe it will be part of an omnibus bill that will fix all that other language in the budget and stimulus bill that he and congress supposedly read in two days, such as chris dodd's aig bonus language.).
now, about those free trade agreements with panama and colombia. . . . . . . . .
