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» TNR: The GOP's future belongs to Rudy (Thomas Edsall)
On the reading list for the day. Edsall is always worth a read.
» NYT: In Deal, a Test for the U.A.W. (Micheline Maynard)
The big companies are merely an oversized canary in the coal mine. Look for more and more stories like this. And at some point, look for Jacob Hacker to be considered something of a prophet on this matter.
» Chron: Let's save free trade from its own deficits It's imperative to turn back the tide of high-paying U.S. jobs moving offshore (Alan Blinder)
» Newsweek: The Democrats' Trade Troubles (Fareed Zakaria)
» WaPo: Bipartisan Trade (Editorial)
Great reading in all of these. Blinder's op-ed is encouraging since it's pretty much where I am these days on the matter. Considering that his is the only voice of an economist on the topic, all the better. Just read the whole thing.
Zakaria's take has some good and bad in it. The good is that he begins to point out how foreign policy and trade are no longer wholly separate. The bad is that he fails to realize that even Bill Clinton favored labor and environmental clauses in trade agreements. Somehow that point has been lost on the myopic critics of the right who now bemoan the absence of a president that, best I can recall, they tried to freakin' run out of office. I'd expect better of Zakaria. Who knows, maybe he'll come around.
The Post's editorial, of course, shows the vacuousness of the critics' position: Charlie Rangel is as much a free-trader as any New Dem, Pacific Rim Dem, or Farmbelt Dem who wants to see their produce sold overseas. Sad but true, folks. Guess it's back to painting John Conyers as the boogeyman.
» Looking Red, Voting Blue (ThirdWay)
I haven't had time to dive deeply into the methodology used here. The results seem a bit too simplistic for me to accept. But there's at least a nub of truth to ponder: midterm elections generally are decided by whiter, older, wealthier, and more male electorates. Recall it was the 1994 GOP win that set forth the meme of "Angry White Male" voters. The makeup then, as now, isn't really that far from the norm. And there's certainly polling to suggest that independent-leaning voters are increasingly moving away from the GOP, if not wholly jumping on board with Democrats. Still, the study is worth checking out.
» NYT: A Mom Running to Lead the Mommy Party (Patrick Healy)
Liberal media, my a##. What'd Hillary do, run over Healy's dog or something? TPM's Horse's Mouth has more.