I get a fair number of constituent complaints about spam, which I believe is an important consumer protection issue, and one we may be able to address in the second session. We live in interesting times. I just returned from Seattle the other day, where my wife was inadvertently tear gassed while shopping at Nordstrom. Probably saved me a few dollars, though. Anyway, it's an interesting dynamic when a free-trade president hosts a WTO ministerial, expresses empathy with the protesters rioting outside, complicates negotiations with statements on compulsory environmental and labor standards, and then expresses satisfaction with the results when the session fails to meet expectations.
Tear gas is an another tip-off.
That said, there's no doubt in my mind that this is only a temporary setback. With the transient historical exceptions of the Spanish Inquisition and the Cultural Revolution, it's simply not possible to turn back the clock on the quest for knowledge and technological progress. Instant communications will continue to shrink the globe, and electronic commerce, now in its infancy, will continue to revolutionize international business. The only question, really, is whether U.S. policy makers will allow American entrepreneurs to be world leaders by opening new markets for goods and services, or force them to be followers by standing on the sidelines while our trading partners form alliances and move ahead without our participation. The difference between the two, by the way, is the huge number of jobs and vast amount of wealth that can be created right here in the United States.