Readers will know I'm not a hater of President Obama by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there are some things I agree with him about, or at least get close. Unlike Matt Damon, for instance, I think Obama's doing a better job than I expected on education (and that's with it being noted that the guy has never really been regarded as the teachers' union's BFF). I have also found myself nodding along as he has recently talked about the importance of passing free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, though I must admit I've been surprised by his rhetorical focus on free trade given that it hasn't exactly stood out as a policy priority for him throughout his career.

What's that you say, Green Bay Press-Gazette? Free trade maybe isn't as big a priority for Obama as his comments during addresses and press conferences and the like would lately suggest? His administration hasn't actually sent these free trade agreements to Congress in order for them to receive a vote? Oh...

The agreements can't be passed until the administration submits them to Congress, and it has not yet done this, although a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative said the administration "has been eager" to do that.

It's nice to hear they're so eager, although the sentiment would be more convincing if the agreements were actually submitted.

The real problem is squabbling over the level of aid under a program for workers displaced by foreign competition. Democrats seek to keep spending at elevated levels, while Republicans want to scale back to earlier levels....

I've got a new op-ed up at the Daily Caller relevant to the 2012 presidential race.  The title sums it up well, but there's plenty of detail worth checking out, if I may humbly say so. [intro]

Long-term readers of my writing know that I am a staunchly pro-immigration Republican, to the point of favoring policies that many in the party would describe as amnesty vis a vis illegal immigrants. That is especially so where we're talking about illegal immigrants who came to the US as children, as the result of a decision made by their parents rather than themselves. Many (if not all) of these kids will grow up identifying as American; they will all have experienced what is exceptional and enviable about this country; many of them know nothing of their countries of origin.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a writer with whom I first became acquainted as he covered the 2008 presidential election and technology, back when I was working as the RNC's Online Communications Director, is, it turns out, one such illegal immigrant. His piece in the NY Times is the most important thing you should read today.

One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “Baka malamig doon” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a family friend, I was introduced to a man I’d never seen. They told me he was my uncle. He held my hand as I boarded an airplane for the first time. It was 1993, and I was 12....