Back in the days of “hope and change”, candidate Obama was against NAFTA and voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. He beat up Hillary Clinton for her support of NAFTA and blamed everything on free trade agreements. The Washington Post called it "pander".   We recall that he turned off Canada and Mexico with some of his attacks on NAFTA. Some of us raised concerns about the candidate's comments but it worked well in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, three states with strong union influence. That was then and this is now. He was giving speeches and pandering back then. He has to govern now in the context of an Asia Pacific market that also includes Chile in South America. President Obama is getting it from Democrats and labor leaders, as we read in Laurie Kellman's post: Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the bill "would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress...(Read Full Post)