McCain stumps strategists by playing up his unpopular stance on free trade

With Americans increasingly anxious about the effects of trade on the sinking economy, John McCain heads to Canada today, where he plans to herald free trade and argue that Barack Obama's "protectionist" policies could be harmful to U.S. alliances.

McCain's advisors believe the border crossing will show McCain in his best light -- as a leader on the world stage unafraid to embrace an unpopular position and optimistic about the new jobs that trade could create.

But some political analysts wondered why McCain would choose to highlight his position in attention-grabbing trips -- whether to Canada or to economically depressed areas like Youngstown, Ohio. The Arizona senator's campaign needs to win the support of independent voters, many of them blue-collar workers worried that the North American Free Trade Agreement will cost them their jobs.

Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist who supports Obama, said that a strong defense of NAFTA has never been "a vote-getter in any context."

"If I was the Obama campaign, I'd send them money and say, 'Please do a straight-talk trade tour of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan,' " he said.

McCain's support for free trade is backed by many economists and widely shared by GOP lawmakers, but the downturn in the economy has soured many Americans on it.

Half the voters surveyed last month in a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll said that free international trade had hurt the economy, while only 26% said that it had helped. That skepticism was even more pronounced among working-class voters with less than a college education. And even among conservative Republican voters, 43% said it was harmful, compared with 38% who said international trade helped the economy.

"I'm not sure what he's thinking he will gain," said Bernie Porn, an independent pollster based in Lansing, Mich. "Maybe he and his strategists think this shows that McCain is willing to tell people what they don't want to hear. But he did that in the primary in Michigan -- he said those jobs that have left, they're never coming back -- and Mitt Romney won Michigan."

The McCain campaign, however, believes the contrast between Obama and McCain on the trade issue may be one of the sharpest in the months ahead and believes McCain can persuade voters that his approach would benefit the country in the long run.