"Did Barack Obama Just Lose to Elizabeth Warren?" (Not really...)

[RiverLover]

Did Barack Obama Just Lose to Elizabeth Warren?
Not really. On the fast-track trade bill, he was rebuffed by his own party.
—By David Corn
| Tue May 12, 2015 Mother Jones



In Washington, as in much of life, it often seems that social evolution doesn't progress much beyond high school. So it was hardly surprising that in the media the battle over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal was often depicted as a spat between the BMOC of the party (President Barack Obama) and the queen of the alt crowd (Sen. Elizabeth Warren). Yet the vote on Tuesday afternoon in the Senate that blocked fast-track legislation—which would allow the president to bring the TPP to an up-or-down floor vote with no amendments—was a sign that Obama's problems are not just with Warren, the Massachusetts populist and progressive darling. Every member of his own party but one voted to stymie a vote on the fast-track bill Obama has been pushing. And after the vote, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who often is mindful of the interests of Manhattan-based financiers, was at the mic denouncing the fast-track measure and demanding a trade deal that does right by American workers—a jab at Obama, who has passionately asserted the TPP is good for US workers.

It turns out that Warren was not holding a marginal position, as the White House had contended. The president was....

Despite what Obama officials were saying, there are real policy issues at the heart of this debate. One is transparency...Snip..

...There are plenty of other policy details Warren has cited to support her opposition to the TPP and the fast-track bill. This is rather complicated stuff. Yet the White House tried to cast this as a political fight driven by Warren's desire to remain the favorite of progressive Democrats.

Perhaps the White House fell into a trap and focused too much on Warren. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, was just as adamant in his opposition, declaring that he would block the fast track bill unless it contained provisions aimed at currency manipulation by China. (Labor unions have been demanding that trade deals confront this matter because currency manipulation allows China to export cheap goods and inflate the price of imported goods manufactured by American workers.) But TPP advocates have feared that a currency manipulation provision could sink the whole deal. Democrats, though, rallied behind Reid on this matter.

The outcome of the vote was "shocking," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell observed afterward. And it was. Even pro-trade Democratic senators sided with Reid.

The TPP and fast track are not dead. The White House called the vote merely a "procedural snafu." But Obama and his aides did seem to miscalculate. His strategy of trying to make Warren the odd woman out failed—at least in this round....

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/barack-obama-elizabeth-warren-tpp-fast-track

(also posted in GD)

[Demeter]

1. Obama Never "Had" Elizabeth Warren

and he lost most of the rest of that crowd that graduated into adulthood long ago. She's just too politically polite to call him out.

[RiverLover]

2. Yep. Way to classy to stoop to that level.

I'm so glad a light is being shone on his sad & failed attempt to make this about her.