The Phony Populist, Part II

Earlier this winter, I wrote a piece saying that John Edwards populist persona was phony. He'd been a centrist member of Congress and on the biggest domestic issue in the country--health care--his position was indistinguishable from that of the more business friendly Hillary Clinton. Now we can add Clinton and Obama to the ranks of phony populists. Each is now incensed about NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Clinton, you see, was secretly angry about it throughout the '90s even though she had labeled it an "accomplishment" of her husbands administration. Likewise, Barack Obama who voted along with Clinton for recent tade agreements with Peru and Oman is also outraged by NAFTA. Please.

Both are moderately pro trade and like a lot of people are having second thoughts about some of these trade deals.They're not reflexively pro any trade agreement the way that John McCain is. I saw McCain on C-SPAN not long ago. They were covering one of his rallies when someone in the scrum that followed one of his speeches asked himw hat his policy was toward Latin America. "Free trade. free trade. free trade," he said which is not exactly the most sphisticated answer coming from a senior senator whose state has a long international border. But it was at least honest which is probably more than I can say for Clinton and Obama who have Ohioed up there basically pro-trade positions for the sake of a primary. Clinton, at least has the excuse of desperation. Obama, who prides himself on hard truths, doesn't have that modest fig leaf.