Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

Glenn Hurwitz is mad that Obama dare support the Peru Free Trade Agreement, a real cornerstone of the Bush Agenda:

On Tuesday, Barack Obama announced his support for President Bush’s bid to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement to Peru.

Yup – Obama is once again helping pass one of President Bush’s top priorities – even as Bush blocks the entire Democratic agenda and daily rains rhetorical abuse down on Democratic heads. Is this how Obama is going to negotiate in the White House?

As a pretty devoted free trader myself, let me say that the Peru FTA, and free trade as a whole, hasn’t been one of Bush’s “top priorities.”  Free trade isn’t a particularly popular position among the rank and file of either party, so even if it’s part of “Bush’s Agenda”(which is a fishy concept at this point anyway, his agenda consists of two things: terrorism and Iraq), it’s certainly not part of the conservative movement’s agenda, especially after 2008, when they no longer have to carry water for the “Bush Agenda.”  So why is it so bad that Obama is supporting a deal that he probably thinks is a good idea?

Hurtwitz proposes a false choice, implying that supporting the Peru FTA “is more of a priority than tackling the climate crisis, ending the war in Iraq, protecting civil liberties, or expanding health care – all core elements of the Democratic agenda that have been blocked by President Bush and the Republicans.”  Does Glenn really think that Bush would be more open to withdrawing from Iraq, reducing executive powers or signing the S-CHIP expansion is the Democrats gave him the Peru-FTA?  There isn’t a trade off, Obama and the Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time – except it’s more like support the P-FTA and have Bush be totally intransigent on everything else OR don’t support the PFTA and have Bush be totally intransigent on everything else.

Also, Obama being comparatively more supportive of free trade than either Clinton or Edwards is very much in accordance with his claim to be God’s Gift to the rest of the world.

I wonder what the Obama Youth Movement Superstar, Minipundit, thinks about the whole deal.