There were a lot of serious and contentious exchanges in tonight's presidential debate. Much of the press focused on John McCain's "I'm not 'W' " comment (yes, I know, I'm paraphrasing), the Bill Ayers references, and McCain's air quotation reference to women's "health" and late term abortions.
However, for my money the biggest smackdown moment of the debate was when John McCain tried to criticize Barack Obama for opposing "free trade" by citing his "nay" vote on a trade agreement with Colombia. McCain then threw in a condenscending jab about Barack Obama's need to visit Latin America. This was Barack Obama's cue to take John McCain to school.
Obama explained that simply because a treaty says "free trade" doesn't mean it's about free trade. He told McCain, and the country, he opposed the treaty with Colombia because of the numerous, on-going, and still unsolved murders of union leaders in Colombia. You can't, after all, have free trade when you're killing and intimidating labor.
John McCain was visibly stumped and boxed in by the reference. He thought he was going to score points on foreign policy and trade, and ended up looking clueless. It was supposed to be a big moment for him (you could tell by the look on his face) but Obama casually dismissed McCain with a wave-of-the-hand-like reference to the facts.
If there was ever any doubt about Barack Obama's ability to connect issues tied to globalization, trade, and labor this settled it. Fortunately for McCain and his campaign, our nation's media is so out of touch with these issues that the Colombia-labor reference flew under their radar.
While our national media appears to have missed the moment, I can assure you labor leaders around the world did not.
- Mark
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