Obama's folks talking to fair traders

(Disclosure: Global Trade Watch has no preference among the candidates.)

According to today's Inside U.S. Trade,

Members of the House Trade Working Group, which opposes the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement and other trade deals negotiated by the Bush administration, late last week told a representative of the Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) that his campaign would gain political support if it endorsed a new trade policy...

Members argued in a June 19 meeting with Obama campaign adviser Jason Furman that a more forceful rejection of Bush administration trade deals would help to connect with working class voters in crucial swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan...

The members in the meeting also talked with Furman about the TRADE Act [...] Furman said the campaign is still reviewing the legislation...

In other news, some of you may remember when Obama went all Bill Cosby on poor black parents last week. But Obama seems to be embracing a bit more structural critique, joining Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in co-sponsoring a bill on paid parental leave for federal workers. The bill, which passed the House last week, is a real victory for economic justice. Go Congress!