Obama to begin 9-day Asia-Pacific trip with economic conference

[ellisonz]

Obama to begin 9-day Asia-Pacific trip with economic conference
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 11:32 AM EST, Fri November 11, 2011

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama begins a nine-day trip through the Asia-Pacific region Saturday with a stop in Hawaii for a weekend economic conference where he will press for progress on a trans-Pacific free trade agreement.

The administration is taking care to highlight the importance of strong Asia-Pacific relations to the president's efforts to create jobs domestically.

"The U.S. exports to this region are essential to the president's goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next several years," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters in a briefing Wednesday. "In fact, nearly all of the efforts that we're going to be making towards that export goal take place in this part of the world."

The 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum account for 55% of the world's gross domestic product, 43% of world trade and 58% of U.S. exports, according to the group.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/11/politics/obama-apec/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[jenmito]

1. K&R. Of course the RWers will whine that he shouldn't be out of the country at this time...

and they'll probably even say he's "vacationing." :eyes:

[ellisonz]

2. There's really no more long-term foreign policy issue than this.

I heard on NPR this trip has been postponed twice already.

He's "campaiging" by not being held hostage in Washington.

[jenmito]

3. I know...

and I'm glad he's going. It's important and he's had to postpone twice for domestic political reasons. He doesn't have to be here for the Super Committee, but I've seen pundits "asking" if this will "look bad" for him to go at this time. :eyes:

[ellisonz]

4. For real...

It's not his job to tell them what to come up with. It's his job veto or sign any proposal. I don't see him signing draconian cuts. One day...we'll have a more intelligent echo chamber in this country. ;-)