Free trade and the 2008 Presidential election: A Defining Issue

[Lord Byron]

I think that this issue hasn't gotten the attention it deserves yet. In my view, it's the most important economic issue of the 2008 election and is a good way to gauge how labor/people-friendly a candidate is.

This is how the candidates seem to me on the issue right now:

Hillary Clinton - Bill Clinton was very much a free-trader, and Mrs. Clinton's been on record telling big businessmen in India that free trade is here to stay. That's how it seems to me. Is this correct?

Barack Obama - He has absolutely no concrete position besides saying that trade agreements should have clauses for labor and environmental protection (duh). I've read The Audacity of Hope, and he says that both sides of the issue have a point and need to be heard. This doesn't mean anything to me. Does anyone here know in which direction he leans?

John Edwards - He seems to represent the anti-free trade, populist wing of the party, but he has a few votes that indicate otherwise. Of the major candidates though, he seems the strongest on this issue. Am I justified in this view? Please tell me if I'm not.

Bill Richardson - I haven't heard anything from him about the issue. He's from the Clinton wing of the party, so I'm pessimistic.

Al Gore - Now this is the candidate whom I'm most concerned about. I've become much more fond of him since he left office. But in the old days, he debated Ross Perot specifically on the issue, strongly advocating free trade. And he was VP under Clinton, and we all know what Clinton thought of free trade. Then in 2000, he took basically the same view on the issue as * and ran with Joe Lieberman. He's gotten much more sensible on foreign policy. I'd like to know from Gore supporters whether his words concerning trade policy have changed. I would love to support Mr. Gore for president, but his record on trade during the 90s is making me worry.

Kucinich - Well, we all know where he stands.

Tom Vilsack - Any details?

Biden - Skeptical since he's from Delaware. Seems Clintonesque.

Dodd - Same as Biden on the record, as far as I know. General moderate party line.

Anyway, I'd just like this thread to be dedicated exclusively to trade policy. Candidate quotes, voting records, anything that you know about any candidate would be helpful to all of us.