Regarding trade, Democrats have become unabashedly protectionist to the point where they are willing to thumb their noses at American friends and allies like South Korea, Colombia, Canada, and Mexico. In May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shelved a painstakingly negotiated trade pact with Colombia that would have primarily benefited American exports. If the US is wary of trading with tiny Colombia – a democratizing neighbor confronting terrorism and drug trafficking – what does that say about America’s capacity for global economic leadership?

Ms. Pelosi also recently killed “fast-track” procedures intended to ease congressional votes on trade agreements, meaning new pacts with South Korea and Panama are also likely to remain in limbo. And just last month, Democrats in the House and Senate proposed a bill (containing many of Senator Obama’s campaign promises) that would require the president to submit plans to renegotiate all current trade agreements – including the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico – before Congress would consider any new agreements.

The message Democrats are sending to the world is clear: You cannot trust America to honor its trade agreements, even with developing nations struggling to enter the global middle class. This is a far cry from Obama’s Lincolnesque promise in his Democratic nomination victory speech June 3rd to restore “our image as the last, best hope on earth.”

Protectionism at its best. It amazes me that the Democratic run congress believes that the answer to improving domestic economy and foreign relations is to restrict trade with other countries. Nancy Pelosi seems to be doing everything in her power to make the “defenders of freedom” the outcasts of the world and for the life of me I can’t understand her reasoning. Is she truly so shortsighted as to think this will bring the jobs back to America? Well according to the yearly unemployment rates there seems to be no loss of jobs, in fact if you look at the average since the inception of NAFTA in 1994 the average unemployment rate for the last 14 years is lower than the 14 years previous. How can this be? Because the jobs didn’t leave, they just simply moved to the areas of the economy that needed them. Don’t think that bringing back the auto workers job isn’t going to have an effect somewhere else. Will you then feel sorry for the farmers that will have a harder time selling there goods, or will you just support farm subsidies, i.e. our taxes, being given to them.