I'm sure it would it be wise of me not to comment on that.
One assignment I had in my professional career was to spend five years in the embassy in Washington, through the days after negotiations of the free trade agreements were announced. It really is a truly remarkable political environment to understand and to function in as a diplomat, quite different from our own.
If you had asked me several weeks ago whether the United States would have a trade policy to speak of until the election of a new administration, I would have said no. Congress now is dominated by Democrats, suspicious of trade agreements and suspicious of trade liberalization. The political authority of the President to do things is weakened for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that he's a lame duck, as is traditionally the case for second-term presidents.
Yet they've cut a deal. These agreements have not been signed, but they've cut a deal on the basis of which the Democrats and the Republicans will agree, with some changes to these agreements, to adopt them according to the procedures of the trade promotion authority. The contrast between the ability to act in those circumstances and our inability to act—
I go back to the days prior to the 2004 election, when there was a very strong majority government. Even then the government felt unable to overcome the opposition of two small sectors. As they say, governments understand opposition; what they don't understand is the absence of support. And that's what we're facing: the absence of support.