THE ONE THING EVERYONE REALIZES IS HE ISN'T TO BE TAKEN AT HIS WORD:

Obama's gamble on free trade pact (John Armstrong, 11/16/09, New Zealand Herald)

Engagement is one thing; marriage is another step altogether. No doubt that distinction was in the back of the minds of Barack Obama's speechwriters when the American President spoke on Saturday of "engaging" with New Zealand and the three other Trans Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional free trade area which spans the Pacific.

"Engaging" with something does not amount to "endorsing" it. Has the President allowed himself a bit of wriggle room in case pressure builds back home which makes it too difficult politically for him to push the free trade barrow?

Likewise, was his ambitious talk of a mega-trade pact reaching across the Pacific designed to stifle criticism coming from the other direction - that from American business leaders worried that the United States' free trade agenda had stalled and who fear being shut out of Asian markets as a result?