[Sam the Sham]

So Perot is leading in the polls today because everyone in America finally believes that he was right all along?!

Gee, I wasn't aware that Perot was seeking public office.

What is fascinating is the political collapse of free trade. The only Democratic pro-free trade candidate was Lieberman and his candidacy went nowhere fast. And we see in the GOP grass roots the same factor. Non college educated workers saw what globalization did to the good factory jobs their fathers had had and now white collar workers are in the same boat. Perot and Buchanan were prophets before their time. On NAFTA they lost the battle but the very fact that Bush is so much on the defensive on this issue shows that they won the opinion war. As that poll I cited shows, the most pro-free trade sector of American opinion, high end college educated white collar professionals no longer believes your assurances because they see in their lives and the lives of the people they know that under the impact of outsourcing and offshoring their career prospects are dwindling. You've lost. All the MNC shills in the world can't convince people that what they see happenning in their lives isn't happenning.

When even Kissinger concedes that at present rates America will become a third world nation in a generation it is obvious that the complete failure of free trade to provide all those good jobs and new industries you keep promising has sunk into the American people.

Bush is trailing badly in the Midwest, the core battleground states because people there can't pay the bills with your blue sky promises. If he loses, and if he keeps this up he will, a new, reborn GOP will have to reject free trade if it is to regain the White House and the ideological initiative.

[A. Pole]

Perot and Buchanan were prophets before their time.

To be precise a prophet by a definition has to be "before" his time. :) On the other hand their detractors are being proven to be the false prophets.

[Southack]

"What is fascinating is the political collapse of free trade. The only Democratic pro-free trade candidate was Lieberman and his candidacy went nowhere fast."

Oh please. Senator and now Presidential candidate Kerry voted *YES* to ratify NAFTA.

[Southack]

"Non college educated workers saw what globalization did to the good factory jobs their fathers had had and now white collar workers are in the same boat. Perot and Buchanan were prophets before their time."

Nonsense. Factory jobs, regardless of globalization, are simply following the same path as Agricultural jobs.

At one point in time agricultural jobs employed 98% of all working Americans. Today, such jobs employ less than 2%, yet we grow more food today than at any point in our past.

What has happened is that *technology* has improved the productivity of our farmers. We need fewer farmers to produce our food.

Ditto for what is happening in manufacturing. Ten years ago GM made almost 5 million cars per year with over 500,000 employees. Today, GM makes more than 5 million cars per year with some 188,000 employees...and their quality is better, too. Again, what is happening is that technology (e.g. robots) is making fewer workers more productive than the larger groups of earlier employees.

This same technological trend can be seen in software with teams of programmers being replaced by simple HTML design packages, and teams of system administrators being replaced by network management software. Fewer people are now able to do even more IT work with even higher levels of quality.

And these things would have happened with or without NAFTA. Enact all the trade protections that you want, the newspaperboy on the street corner is still going to be replaced by the newspaper vending machine...only he won't have words like "free trade" to blame for his loss of his job under such a scenario.