Trans-Pacific Partnership Poll: Only The Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him To Have Fast Track

[cali]

Americans are not keen on Congress giving U.S. President Barack Obama what he wants: the authority to negotiate a massive free-trade pact among a comity of Pacific Rim countries and then deliver the results to Capitol Hill for a swift up-or-down vote, known as fast-track authority. Overall, the U.S. public is cooling to the idea of free-trade agreements, believing, unlike they have in the past, that multinational agreements to bring down trade barriers is costing U.S. jobs while favoring large multinational corporations over the interests of small businesses.


These were some of the findings of a public survey released Wednesday by Hart Research Associates, a Democratic pollster, and Chesapeake Beach Consulting, a Republican polling firm.

“There’s been a real shift in public attitudes in the past 10 to 15 years in a negative direction; that is, growing concern about an opposition to free-trade agreements in the country overall,” said Guy Molyneux, a partner of Hart Research. “That means proponents of fast track face a headwind as they try to make a case for the passage of fast track and eventually the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

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http://www.ibtimes.com/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-poll-only-strongest-obama-supporters-want-him-have-fast-track-1552039

President Obama made the TPP and TTIP the central pieces of his trade policy. He's facing opposition that isn't going to go away.

[grahamhgreen]

1. "62 percent of respondent opposed the idea"... In a real Democracy, it would die forever.

[ProSense]

2. They didn't

Broken down by political affiliation, only Democrats that identify as “liberal” strongly favor the idea.

...poll me. I don't want him to have fast track.

I prefer Congress to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. With that as the only route to passage, maybe when it gets to Congress it will not be the horror of speculation.

[sabrina 1]

3. How can Congress go through something they are not allowed to look at?

If it were not for Wikileaks we would not know anything, and neither would Congress, about what is in this secret deal.

The didn't poll me either. I don't care who is for or against it, I am against it.

[ProSense]

4. ?

"How can Congress go through something they are not allowed to look at?"

They'll look at it when they get it if it isn't fast-tracked. As I said here (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024415408#post4), it looks like the goal is to move it to a slow track.

[sabrina 1]

8. 'If it isn't fast tracked'. Congress has not seen it, have they? And this president

doesn't want them to see it, does he? So what is your argument here?

[ProSense]

9. What? n/t

[sabrina 1]

11. Simple question. Why is the president trying to fast track the TPP?

[ProSense]

13. How should I know, but what does that have to do with the point I made? n/t

[sabrina 1]

14. The point you made was that you oppose fast tracking the TPP

because it won't give Congress time to understand what they are being asked to vote for.

I agree with that, therefore I oppose the President's position.

I have no idea why a Democrat would support this. I asked if you know.

[cali]

5. I don't think you understand. trade deals don't happen without fast track

It won't be gone over with a fine tooth comb. The admin won't introduce it to Congress without tpa. not a chance in the world.

[ProSense]

6. So

"I don't think you understand. trade deals don't happen without fast track It won't be gone over with a fine tooth comb. The admin won't introduce it to Congress without tpa. not a chance in the world."

...the "YAY! We Win" was premature?

Again: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024415408#post4

[cali]

7. no. it's a win- though the corporations and their politicians friends

will certainly keep trying to push through tpa in the coming years. It's a win in the sense that the TPP and TPA are stalled dead in the water for now. And they were central to your beloved President's trade agenda.

[ProSense]

10. "And they were central to your beloved President's trade agenda."

Oh my!

Is the rest of my "beloved President's" policies "central" to his agenda?

[pampango]

12. "... only Democrats that identify as “liberal” strongly favor the idea."

On the question of fast-track authority, 62 percent of respondents opposed the idea, with 43 percent “strongly” opposing it. Broken down by political affiliation, only Democrats that identify as “liberal” strongly favor the idea. Predictably, a strong Republican majority oppose giving the president such authority, with both conservative and moderates oppose it by a ratio of 85 percent or higher.

And you are right. Obama's opposition is not going away.

It will be interesting to see if there is a confrontation lurking with the massive opposition from the republican base contrasted with massive support from republican politicians.

[MisterP]

15. are they the ones identifying as "most liberal"? that's par for the course for how the poll

results are always structured since '09: torture, war, drones, dismantling the economy

[betterdemsonly]

16. The word liberal is returning to its original meaning

which involved being a free market fundy. I guess Obama is reclaiming the term for corporatists! They surely are not new deal liberals.

[kelliekat44]

17. Obama is helping us get rid of fast track forever...by supporting it. I only hope that we all

remember how much we were against it when the next President takes office..no matter who it is.