The Surest Sign Yet That Hillary Is Taking Bernie’s Campaign Seriously

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa—More than 200 people packed into a musty, walk-in basement of a local union hall here on Saturday afternoon to hear Bernie Sanders. About halfway through the self-styled socialist’s rousing-if-somewhat-rambling remarks, he took a direct shot at President Obama and a not-so-subtle one at Hillary Clinton. “The time is long overdue for us to begin discussing our disastrous trade policies,” Sanders told the standing-room-only crowd, a failing microphone making his scratchy voice even more so as he railed against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the global trade accord that has pitted American labor and liberal activists against the president.

The next day, Sanders got his wish—sort of.

At her first major campaign rally in Iowa, Clinton finally entered the discussion about the Asia-Pacific trade deal and the so-called fast-track authority the president wants Congress to give him to help broker it. In her most extensive remarks on the topic to date, Clinton called on Obama to take labor’s concerns seriously while also casting the current House fight that has thrown the deal into limbo as an opportunity, not a problem. “The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers, to make sure we get the best, strongest deal possible and if we don't get it, there should be no deal,” Clinton said in Des Moines.

It wasn’t the full-throated opposition that labor leaders and their progressive allies wanted, but her comments were noteworthy nonetheless. For starters, Clinton’s support of Pelosi’s hardball tactics should further strengthen House Democrats’ hand in negotiations on Capitol Hill for stronger protections for American workers. More important is what the comments suggest for the campaign trail ahead. Clinton was careful and calculated—but this was the first time she has been forced into a major debate she doesn’t want to have by one of her long-shot challengers from the left.

More:http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/15/hillary_clinton_talks_tpp_the_best_sign_yet_that_she_ll_have_to_take_bernie.html