August 17, 2016
President Obama is working hard to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), going around the country promoting the pact. He must want Congress to approve it before he leaves office.
That much would be obvious to anyone. But Politico uses its incredible mind reading ability to go a step further. It tells us:
“Obama has been unwilling to abandon a deal that he regards as central to his legacy.”
The rest of us might be able to know that Obama says that he regards the TPP central to his legacy, but lacking Politico’s mind reading skills we wouldn’t know that he actually does regard the TPP as central to his legacy. Since President Obama is a politician, we know that he doesn’t always say exactly what he thinks, so we may not know whether or not he regards the TPP as central to his legacy.
We could believe that the is pushing the deal as a favor to the powerful business interests that helped to negotiate the deal, like the pharmaceutical industry, the entertainment industry, and the financial industry. These industries are expected to be major donors to Democratic campaigns this fall.
Of course, it would be difficult to get approval for the TPP based on the argument that it would benefit contributors to the Democratic Party. Since President Obama is popular with the country as a whole, and enormously popular among Democrats, it is a much stronger argument to make voting against the deal a personal affront to the president. So it is entirely understandable that President Obama would want the public to have him believe that he sees the TPP as central to his legacy.
Thankfully, we have Politico and the mind readers on its staff who can tell us that President Obama is not acting as a politician but rather he actually believes this claim.
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