While the job market continues to decline, while unemployment rates continue to rise and while U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke continues to pump money into the economy… President Barack Obama takes a trip.

Whoever schedules Obama’s events needs to be promoted. Planning a 10-day trip in Asia right after the midterm elections doesn’t look so good for the president, but it is actually brilliant in the long run. Obama is doing amazing work with trying to tackle the job market and getting the United States back on its feet.

On Nov. 5, Obama set out on a 10-day tour of Asia with a large number of corporate executives and employees to push for a more open trade market between the United States and countries such as India. In addition, Obama’s trip will allow him to meet with corporate leaders in Japan, South Korea and Indonesia to renegotiate free trade pacts that will promote a flow of American goods.

Many Republican incumbents and those who have recently won political seats of power are saying Obama’s ‘trip’ comes at a time when he needs to stay at home and listen to what the American people want. The people want more jobs and stress the necessity for a stabilized economy.

If the Republican Party, namely Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann, really understood politics and paid attention to tactics, it would realize that Obama’s tour is doing exactly what the people want.

‘As part of the trip, American and Indian companies signed or are about to sign 20 deals worth about $10 billion that will help create more than 50,000 jobs at home,’ wrote Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Vikas Bajaj in an article for The New York Times on Saturday.

That last number may not seem like a lot now, but considering India’s vastly emerging economy, it’s bound to grow at a rapid and hopefully constant rate. Also keep in mind that Obama still has the rest of the week to make deals with the other three countries before returning home next Monday. If he is able to secure as many contracts as he’s done so far in India, a large number of people may soon find that they’ll finally have something to wake up for in the morning.

The fact that Obama decided to take a journey right after what many are calling a horrifying defeat during the midterm elections doesn’t mean he’s trying to take a break or run away from his problems. He understood that the loss of so many Democratic seats meant that U.S. citizens weren’t happy with the job that had been done thus far. He answered their woes by literally going outside of the box and looking for solutions. Obama needs to continue his efforts to foster international trade pacts with emerging economies so that jobs can be created both domestically and abroad.

There is a fear that outsourcing will occur because we are now working closely with India, one of the biggest outsourced countries in the world. That fear is being met by the push for U.S. products to flow into India and other countries for their civilian population and not our own. What Obama is doing is getting other countries to buy from us so that U.S. citizens can create for them. Something so basic should have been pushed earlier.

The Obama administration may be a little late with getting things done, but it is doing a great job in trying to turn things around for the job market. The administration needs to continue its efforts despite harsh criticism from Republicans and those misunderstood Tea Partiers.

John Sumpter is a senior political science major. His column appears every Monday, and he can be reached at jfsumpte@syr.edu.

 

Published on November 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm