Toing and froing on Obamanomics

So I read through Barack Obama's big speech on "Renewing American Competitiveness," which I probably would have liked more if I didn't think that competitiveness was a bulls**t term with little substantive meaning.  The part of the speech I hated the most:  Technology has changed the way we live and the way the world does business. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the advance of capitalism have vanquished old challenges to America's global leadership, but new challenges have emerged, from China and India, Eastern Europe and Brazil. Jobs and industries can move to any country with an internet connection and willing workers. Michigan's children will grow up facing competition not just from California or South Carolina, but also from Beijing and Bangalore. You know how Bush officials like to connect any controversial foreign policy issue to the war on terrorism, even though the link might be exceedingly tenuous?  I'm beginning to think that Democrats are practicing the same tactics when it comes to trade.  Republicans like to demagogue about what a scary place the world is in terms of security; Democrats do the same thing when they're talking about the global economy.  Yes, globalization is responsible for some job losses and wage compression, but it's contribution is pretty damn small.  Obama -- or his advisors -- are being disingenuous when he says that jobs have left Michigan for China.  Those jobs have disappeared into the ether, period.  Technological innovation has yielded so much in the way of productivity gains that even though manufacturing jobs are shrinking in the United States, manufacturing output in this country has more than doubled since 1980.  The same process has caused the global number of manufacturing jobs to shrink as well.  On the other hand.... the speech echoed what Bill Clinton used to say in 1992, with a slightly greater emphasis on public goods investments than fiscal probity.  Given the current state of the economy -- and the current state of our transport infrastructure -- I'm betting it will go over well.  After Obama gave an interview sounding similar themes to the Wall Street Journal, James Pethokoukis made some interesting points:    Barack Obama just gave a pretty meaty interview on economic policy to the Wall Street Journal in which he kind of sounded like a guy applying for a job at the Wall Street Journal, at least its editorial board. Obama certainly comes off as a Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Democratic Leadership Council "Third Way" centrist.... If Republicans are counting on voters being frightened by Obamanomics—at least as Obama presented it in this interview—they are woefully mistaken. John McCain is going to have to make a compelling economic argument on why Obama is wrong and he is right. Pethokoukis really doesn't like Obamanomics, so the fact that he's making these admissions suggests that Obama's economic proposals are going to confound those who wish to paint him as the most liberal man on the planet.