In a piece at In These Times Working titled "Obama in the Heartland: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly" Roger Bybee writes about the elements of President Obama's recent visit to Racine, Wisconsin.  

The good---Obama's creating a bond of trust with the crowd, for example--- to the bad: his evasiveness and weaseling on trade, not challenging any aspect of globalization, and the very ugly, which is an eye-opener and unconscienable: bailout money used to move jobs out of the US.

Bybee writes:

"The picket line set up outside the Obama event by infuriated members of United Auto Workers Local 72, of the Chrysler engine plant in nearby Kenosha (10 miles south of Racine), was the most immediate reminder of how U.S. taxpayer dollars have helped ship jobs overseas.

"With the help of a federal "bailout" sold to the public as helping Chrysler to stay alive and retain jobs in America, Chrysler is actually using part of the funds to relocate the last 850 automaking jobs in Wisconsin to a new plant in Saltillo, Mexico.

"The Kenosha to Saltillo maneuver is a particularly appalling breach of faith with both the public and workers. Chrysler and Obama administration officials, including economic advisor Lawrence Summers, broke their pledges made in an April 30, 2009, conference call almost immediately.

"The very next day, Chrysler announced the relocation to Mexico. The move also broke a longstanding, formal agreement under which Chrysler committed itself to building new engine lines in Kenosha.

"But while infuriating, the Chrysler move to Mexico was typical of the overall auto bailouts. The net impact of the GM and Chrysler bailouts financed by US taxpayers—shaped largely by Wall Streeters like Summers and Treasury  Secretary Timothy Geithner—has been to eliminate more U.S. auto jobs while bringing in more components and cars produced by GM and Chrysler plants in places like Mexico and China."

Given Obama's continuing supplemental war spending; his deficit aka Cat Food commission attack on Social Security but hands off military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy; ignoring any New Deal solution for double digit unemployment; dissing of labor unions; a deliberately weak stimulus; promoting center-right, Bushite policies;  caving to the GOP; spinelessness when it comes to the common good; etc. the following Bybee reminders may be quite prescient.

"After turning labor and environmental safeguards into meaningless "side agreements, Clinton, Al Gore, and Rahm Emanuel put together a coalition comprised mostly of Republicans to gain passage of NAFTA in November 1993.

"At present, Obama and his advisors ought to remember that this less-tha-brilliant strategy created an economic disaster for cities like Racine across America, and also fueled a crushing Republican upsurge in the 2004 mid-terms when demoralized Democrats stayed at home."