McCain banking on foreign trips to best Obama

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is trying to further embellish his foreign policy credentials with foreign travel and state visits during the current down time before the convention season heats up.

The major purpose McCain uses these trips for is to show his support for NAFTA and other trade pacts, and the importance of foreign trade to the U.S. economy. This flies directly in the face of Obama's oft-stated opposition to such trade, pandering to Big Labor by pointing out that foreign trade sucks jobs overseas, where lower wages keep company's costs down.

McCain did this in a recent trip to Canada, and Obama blasted it, as did his surrogate, Michigan Gov. Janet Granholm. They said he should go to Michigan, where high taxes and anti-business decisions by state government, have destroyed thousands of jobs and closed factories--and promote foreign trade there. It isn't foreign trade that has lost rust belt jobs--it is the tax policy and business climate established by Democratic governors like Granholm, Gov. Ted Strickland in Ohio, Ed Rendell in Pennsylvania and Jon Corzine in New Jersey--that has killed jobs. High taxes and excessive regulation drive business out of the country and to other states, not foreign trade.

McCain believes he can capitalize on this by going to South America, and point out that America is open for business. Only time will tell if he is right.