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John Nichols' advice for Obama is very. very odd:
Obama needs to get rid of that trade adviser, Austan Goolsbee, who was talking to the Canadians. In fact, the senator needs to ditch most of his economic-policy advisers, since they do not agree with what he is saying with regard to NAFTA, China trade and a host of related issues. The truth is that the Obama economic policy team is more Clintonite in its approach to a host of issues than the Clinton team. It's time to bring Obama's union backers, particularly representatives from UNITE-HERE and the Teamsters, into the mix.Next, Obama needs to go to Pittsburgh and deliver a very serious, very detailed speech in which he makes it clear that he is the only remaining candidate who is fundamentally opposed to current U.S. trade policies -- and that if he is elected he will drop the fast-track model for negotiating these deals. That speech should be delivered at the international headquarters of the United Steelworkers of America in the city's downtown.But Austan Goolsbee isn't Barack Obama's adviser by accident, or because Obama never noticed he violently disagrees with Goolsbee's economic outlook. Goolsbee is his adviser because...Barack Obama doesn't really agree with what Barack Obama is saying about "NAFTA, China trade and a host of related issues." Obama is, at the moment, the country's premiere politician. He doesn't have to suffer advisers he doesn't like, and it's not as if the unions won't return his calls. He doesn't surround himself with Laborites, though, because he isn't a Laborite. Firing Goolsbee wouldn't change that. It would just be another untrue statement against NAFTA, China trade, and related issues. Like a lot of major politicians, Barack Obama is much more worried about trade when trying to get votes in Ohio. As a policy matter, he's much less concerned with renegotiating trade agreements -- which wouldn't do much anyway -- than with building more economic security as a method of compensating for globalization's ravages.
