GOVERNING FROM FEAR:

U.S. to Toughen Its Stance On Trade: New Policy Reflects Growing Dissatisfaction With Global Markets (Anthony Faiola, 3/10/09, Washington Post)

Even as world trade takes its steepest drop in 80 years amid the global economic crisis, the administration is preparing to take a harder line with America's trading partners. It will seek new benchmarks before supporting already-written trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea and is suggesting that it will dig in its heels on global trade talks, demanding that other countries make broader concessions first. [...]

In what appeared to be a jab at the Bush administration's zealous pursuit of free-trade agreements, Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, said: "I do not come to this job . . . with deal fever. We're not going to do deals just for doing so."

Jab? It's a concession that W was our tradingest president ever. He was who Republicans think Reagan was and Democrats think Clinton was. President Obama runs the risk of being who Hoover was.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2009 7:23 AM