McCain Happy For The Canadians

"Let them come to Berlin."

And what would John McCain have in common with these words from John F. Kennedy in West Berlin, Germany on June 26, 1963?

Really, nothing, but that's the problem. Senator McCain recently traveled to Ottawa to deliver to a receptive audience at The Economic Club of Canada a paean to the (1994) North American Free Trade Agreement and unfair trade. But instead of fleeing to another (albeit friendly) country, perhaps McCain should have brought his ironically named Straight Talk Express to the midwestern U.S.A.

The Ohio News Network, which bills itself as "Ohio's 24-Hour News Channel," reported in 2004 of a report issued by the nonpartisan think tank, Policy Matters Ohio. Evaluating job dislocation reports filed the the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, the study found that 15,000-16,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Ohio from 1995 to October 2003 due to the NAFTA. For just the first seven years of NAFTA, according to the Economic Policy Institue, net job losses in the Midwest in the electronic equipment and automotive sectors were severe: nearly 12,000 in Illinois; nearly 17,000 in Indiana; and nearly 25,000 in Michigan in the automotive sector alone.

If John McCain were to bring his Express south from Canada to the states, he would find the engine of economic progress has stalled, due in no small part to the failed promises of trade which is neither free, nor fair, to middle-class Americans.