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I don't think this can be writtn off entirely, though I do think it's little more than a tortured diatribe. In fact, Big Oil has announced record profits in the last year. And offshoring is cutting into the middle class's standard of living. Those are facts that can't be ignored.

However, it is working those facts too hard to make them carry the accusation that Bush and the administration are "waging war" against the middle class.

Bush has betrayed the middle class in a number of ways -- trade deficits prompted by PNTR with China and the NAFTA/CAFTA debacles, reluctance to close our borders to illegal immigration, burgeoning government spending, poor energy policies, etc.. But blunders alone do not constitute a "war."

The big problem for Bush is that our trade policy is closely connected to our long-term foreign policy and security policy regarding China. If trade didn't affect foreign policy, then we would just restrict imports from China and other low-cost producers and keep all those manufacturing jobs here. But free trade does spread the philospophy of free enterprise overseas, and the recent history of Russia shows that if a Chinese Gorbachev emerges then a whole lot of defense and security problems can be greatly reduced very quickly. For example, if a Chinese Gorbachev emerges and China moves towards Democracy, then we don't have to worry nearly as much about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

This is the big challenge with trade policy--the connection with foreign policy. The same thing is true with Mexico. Why do we allow so many illegal immigrants and a lopsided trade policy with Mexico? IMO, primarily for one reason: Venezuela, i.e., we don't want Mexico to become another Venezuela with a hostile authoritarian socialist leader on our border fooling around with WMD. No question, it's a tough job being President. Often, there's no simple, straightforward answer in any direction that is best for the US in all ways over all timeframes....just tradeoffs and bargaining everywhere you look.