A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Appealing to union voters in a dry wall manufacturing plant in this crucial primary state, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sunday afternoon said that even though he has repeatedly said the passage of NAFTA was bad for the country, he would not try to repeal it.

"I don't think its realistic for us to repeal NAFTA," he said during a town hall meeting on the economy.

He argued arguing that because the trade deal had been passed more than a decade ago, it was entrenched in the economy, and any attempt to repeal it "would actually result in more job loss ... than job gains."

So . . . NAFTA has been bad for the economy but getting rid of something that has been bad for the economy would make the economy worse so it's better to stick with the bad instead of dumping the bad and avoiding the worse even though what we have right now in NAFTA is bad.

Got it. Of course, it's entirely possible that Barack Obama knows full well that NAFTA has been good for America and doesn't want to repeal it, even though he is perfectly willing to trash it for domestic political consumption.

But I guess that's just too simple an explanation for what's going on here.