Trade deal defeated by the president's own party

This has to be the low point of President Obama's administration, losing so badly (302 to 126) at the hands of his own party on this trade deal he has put so much into.    But, from what I know at this point, it seems to me that the president was his own worst enemy in the way he handled this.

It culminated this morning, when he made a last minute appeal to the Democratic Caucus.  According to some Democrats leaving the meeting, they felt he was insulting and questioned their integrity;   and then he left without taking questions.

I have not understood all along why the president seemed to be championing something that appealed more to Republicans than to Democrats.   But it was even moreso the process and his attitude toward opponents in his own party.    He would simply say, as he did about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, that she was wrong and didn't know what she was talking about -- but then he never said exactly what she was wrong about.   And, since the senators are forbidden from discussing the details, we still don't know if she was in fact wrong.

I tried to give the president the benefit of doubt, knowing how difficult and complex any multi-national aggreement is and how impossible it would be to conduct sensitive negotiations if there are leaks and public discussion about the details before there is a final agreement.   Surely there must be something I didn't understand that would explain this uncharacteristic behavior of the president.

But, rather than talking about that, he simply dismissed his critics -- as rudely as if they were the Republican right.

The vote today was not actually a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership but on the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which would help pay to retrain workers who lose their jobs as a result of the TPP.      But passing TAA was necessary to secure a number of Democratic votes necessary to pass TPP.

The Senate has already passed its version of TPP, and the House can reintroduce it, but it's likely dead for now, at least.   And it will be even harder to get it passed, without major changes, because of this today.

The defeat was assured today when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that she would vote no on TAA, saying: " . . .  I'm sad to say it’s the only way that we will be able to slow down the fast-track.   If TAA fails, the fast-track bill is stopped."    Democrats' objections to TAA were not conceptual but to the fact that funding for it was too low and that the Senate version would pay for it by cutting $700 million from Medicare. 

Some Democrats -- and I think they're right -- blamed the Obama administration, saying that they ignored organized labor's complaints that it failed to protect workers.   It also did little to demand environmental standards, or to prevent currency manipulation, by other countries.   Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said, "This vote wouldn't be so close if this process hadn't been so closed."    That was said before the vote;   as it turned out, it wasn't anywhere near close.   It lost by 176 votes.

Ralph