Clinton had been saying for months that she would not make a decision about TPP until the deal was finalized. (It was apparently impossible for a former Secretary of State who worked on the deal and prioritized the Asia “pivot” to get any decent info on it.) The deal was finalized on Monday. On Tuesday, Clinton said that she would be “diving into that tonight” for some light bedtime reading. By Wednesday, she had seen enough to determine that she was not in favor of it. Well, not in favor of it based on what she knows, as of today. Well, not in favor of what she has learned about it based on what she knows, as of today.

This was a perfect trade deal until Obama and Kerry screwed it up after I left the administration, appears to be what she’ll have to go with. The truth is that she has few other political options as she tries to box out her competitors. And since Biden is still in the administration, he, unfortunately, will have less room to pretend to hate TPP.

Will anyone find Clinton’s position convincing? In 2008, both Clinton and then-Senator Barack Obama pledged to “renegotiate” NAFTA if they were elected. In one of the stranger moments that spring, both campaigns were caught telling Canadian dignitaries that they were just saying that for political purposes. (Fortunately for Clinton, she wasn’t caught until after the Ohio primary, which she won.) President Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put approximately zero seconds of effort into “renegotiating” NAFTA. What should anyone expect a would-be President Clinton to do about TPP?