Why China isn’t Ohio’s boogeyman

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:48:00 +0000

There's an easy answer to the question of why Barack Obama and Mitt Romney continue to trade jabs over who will be meaner to China over the next four years. It's called Ohio. Free trade does not focus group well in the all-important Midwestern electoral prize. When votes are at stake in Toledo and Cleveland and Akron and Cincinnati, presidential candidates will pander like they've never pandered before.

But there's a deeper discontent at work nationwide that plays into the same dynamic, aptly identified by David Leonhardt in Wednesday's New York Times. For most Americans, our standard of living is stagnating, or in outright decline, and one of the villains is globalization. So when Romney declares that he will label China a "currency manipulator" on "Day One" and Obama touts his record of cracking down on cheap Chinese tires, what the candidates are really doing is blaming the most convenient boogeyman for a profound change in how Americans feel about the future.

Salon.com > currency manipulation

Why China isn’t Ohio’s boogeyman