International Angle: China Trade War?

Earlier today I bashed Romney on his Libya remarks.  Now, I'm inclined to do the same thing to Obama over his decision to file a trade complaint against China.  Political pandering to people who don't understand the full picture.

I'm not saying that China is on the up-and-up.  Not many people who have spent more than 15 minutes reading up on Chinese trade practices will vouch for their ability to play by the rules.  But at the same time, if you looked at the United States in a similar point during the transition from an agriculture to an industrial economy you'd see similar practices.

The difference is, we did it first.  Before there were established players to be hurt by it.

Obama is smart, smart enough to realize that no matter how many times he tattles on China it will never bring jobs back to America.  The economy of the 1940's, 50's, and 60's is gone, and gone forever.  The American worker is too expensive, too entitled, and oddly enough too uneducated to do the manufacturing jobs of 2012.

But you can't tell that to someone who doesn't want to flex with the times.  Someone who can't.  Someone who's just lost their job after 20 years, working in a plant that's now located in China.  They barely got their high school diploma, never built another skillset beside operating their assembly line station.  They're fucked.  The world is leaving them behind, and they're rightly scared about it.

Obama knows he can't help them--probably not, anyway.  What I see is Obama trying to help that person's kids.  Setting the country up for success down the road, since we've fallen behind on this leg of the race.  But that doesn't win elections.

As a nation, we've lost the ability to lay out a plan and work toward a goal.  We've been seduced by the instant gratification of drive thru food, iPods, Blackberry syncing.  If it's complicated, we want it simplified.  If it relies on a human doing their job, we want to automate it to eliminate risk.

That nation needs to be pandered to.  We all bitch about politicians, and how they behave.  But we created them, folks.  Maybe not you, maybe not me--but the Average American needs pandering.  They need to be consoled.  Whatever politician does this the best will win--even if they actually have nothing of value to offer.

The difference between Obama and Romney for me is pretty simple.  They're both politicians; they both pander; they both lie; they both have their flaws and their strengths.  But at the end of the day, Romney got rich by destroying healthy companies for short-term gain.  Obama got his start helping communities one person at a time.  One of these mind sets will set America up for continued greatness, and the other will send us down the path of the British Empire.

I'd really have to tell my child someday, "Kid, you're American.  Tone it down a bit."

National View: How Do You Know When a Candidate Goes Too Far?

Answer: They change the subject.

Just after the attack on the Libyan consulate, Mitt Romney accused the President of being apologetic in his response.  This ignited some pretty heated backlash, including from other Republicans.

It saddens me that someone acknowledging reality, despite party affiliation, is remarkable.  But never mind that just now.

Romney knows he went too far in trying to appeal to the militant right wing here in America, and we can tell because he's not talking about the Libya attack or any other Muslim unrest.

This bothers me more than a little.  As President, would be able to ignore one of the major foreign policies crises of the last 6 months?  "Well, I muffed that--time to focus on education reform for a while."  A sitting President doesn't have the luxury of changing their focus.

What I see out of this whole mess is a candidate trying to fire up his base--the people who hate that black bleeding heart in the White House.  By accusing Obama of not defending the American way of life, of being ashamed of American values like freedom of speech, Romney's just trying to piss off our own reactionary radicals.  The ones who don't necessarily like Romney, but will vote for him if they're sure a vote for Obama is a vote for evil.

Romney doesn't have the first idea how he'd react to such a wide-spread problem.  Those who can, do.  Those who can't, throw up smoke screens.  You can strengthen yourself, or weaken your obstacle--and I think it's pretty clear how Romney approaches his problems.