Wanna Trade?

It's probably no coincidence -- when you're in the campaign business you tend not to believe in coincidences -- but trade is becoming a defining issue just as we reach the critical, final days before the Iowa caucuses. The gloomy headline in today's Des Moines Register, "Iowa's Lost Jobs May Never Return," fuels the passions of traditional blue-collar Democrats.

Meanwhile, a coalition of groups -- the ones who favor "fair trade not free trade" -- are putting heat on the Democratic candidates to pledge to do more to protect U.S. interests and American jobs when negotiating trade agreements. They made a big splash Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement that organized labor loves to hate.

And Dick Gephardt, who seems to have disappeared from the headlines lately, was hammering on his opponents yesterday. He was in Washington, D.C., not Washington, Iowa, but the story still received strong play here. According to the Associated Press, Gephardt ripped Dean as "one of the biggest supporters of NAFTA, one of the biggest supports of the China agreement. Now, he's had an 11th-hour conversion."

Maybe Dean is too far ahead to catch, and may he has charmed his way into the hearts of a couple big unions who seem to think he's the guy to carry them to victory, but Gephardt's return to this tried-and-true Democratic issue should resonate with Iowa's rank-and-file union members. Those people have turned out for him in the past. The question now is whether this reminder of what Gephardt stands for will be enough to motivate them again. The answer will decide Gephardt's political future in less than three weeks.