The president went to Capitol Hill to grovel today - but it wasn't enough.

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[h=1]Obama's flagship trade bill on life-support after Democrats vote to stall it despite president's desperate lobbying on Capitol Hill[/h]

• Vote on legislation authorizing the president to negotiate a 12-nation trade accord didn't go the way the White House wanted
• The House rejected a measure that was integral to final passage of the trade legislation; they may now have to start from scratch
• The White House sent the president's cabinet to Capitol Hill to wrangle Democrats, and Obama himself made calls to his party members
• When that didn't work, Obama came directly to lawmakers, first at the Congressional Baseball Game and then on Capitol Hill this morning
• Obama's party is bucking him on free trade, and Hillary Clinton won't get involved

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The president's trade deal is on life support following a House vote today to reject an integral measure tied to the legislation.
The House killed a portion of the package that would provide assistance to workers displaced from their jobs as a result of the free trade bill the president's trying to secure alongside 11 other countries.
Without the pot of money, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, the Senate is unlikely to approve the overarching Trade Promotion Authority bill.
Proponents of the Pacific Rim treaty must now renegotiate the terms of the legislation allowing Obama to pursue an agreement or convince their colleagues of the merits of the legislation as written so that Obama can proceed with multi-national negotiations.
Opponents of the current bill made it clear today that they're going to stand their ground until they get what they want.
The 126-302 vote against Trade Adjustment Assistance, TAA, bill was a stunning defeat for the Democratic president at the hands of his own party, especially after the White House pulled out all the stops to prevent it, including sending Obama himself to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers.


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Rare visit: President Obama on Capitol Hill this morning leaving a meeting with House Democrats. He was pushing for them to pack his Pacific trade accord

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Unusual sight: The presidential motorcade on its way to Capitol Hill for Obama to make an 11th-hour appeal to Democrats to vote for the free trade accord which they have expressed doubt over

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Back home: The president heads for the Oval Office after returning from Capitol Hill



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The knockout blow came just as the House was taking to the floor to vote. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who had been straddling the fence, said she'd vote against it, giving her caucus the last permission slip it needed to do the same.
The lower chamber did approve the critical Trade Promotion Authority that would authorize the president to negotiate the 12-nation trade accord, a nod toward continuing debate on the matter.
Explaining her no vote on the assistance package, Pelosi said she was voting to extend debate on the overall trade deal.
'So while I'm a big supporter of TAA, if TAA slows down the Fast Track, I am prepared to vote against TAA,' she said. 'I will be voting today to slow down the Fast Track, to get a better deal for the American people – bigger paychecks, better infrastructure, help the American people fulfill the American Dream.'
In the speech, which drew applause from Democrats on the House floor at the time, Pelosi said she didn't think it was fair that the Senate got to dictate the terms of the bill - which it passed two weeks ago after a lengthy debate of its own - and the House was expected to approve it without making any of its preferred changes.
'I find that unnecessary,' she said, and 'unacceptable.'


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Pelosi said she's been 'hopeful' throughout the legislative process 'we could find a path to yes for the Fast Track legislation that was being put forth – some bumps in the road along the way; some potholes along the way; unfortunately, I think, sinkholes, as well.'
'But that doesn't mean that that road cannot be repaired. I just believe that it must be lengthened,' she said.
Following this afternoon's dramatic turn over events she said in a letter to her colleagues 'the overwhelming vote today is a clear indication that it’s time for Republicans to sit down with Democrats to negotiate a trade promotion authority bill that is a better deal for the American people.'
'We look forward to working in a bipartisan way for a trade promotion authority bill that has better transparency, more consultation with Congress and stronger protections for Congressional priorities – especially labor rights and the environment,' she said, speaking on behalf of Democrats, who led the charge today against their own party leader, Obama.
The White House referred to the matter today as a 'procedural snafu' - its favored term as of late for situations in which the votes don't go their way - and the president's spokesman did his best to spin today's floor action into a short-term setback for the executive branch that it will soon overcome.
Confronted by a reporter with the cold reality that today's events were not a win for the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said, 'I don't think that's an accurate assessment of what happened.'
That the TAA bill passed in the Senate and the TPP bill passed in both chambers suggests a favorable outcome in the end for the president, he said.
'I think if you consider the results, that's a strong endorsement of our strategy,' noting the president and his legislative team clearly have more work to do.


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Last night, President Obama threw himself at the doorways of lawmakers' dugouts as he interrupted their annual, charity baseball game at Nationals Park to lobby them to vote for his free trade bill. Pictured in the back right is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - a hold out Obama was hoping to win over


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Last night, Obama threw himself at the doorways of lawmakers' dugouts as he interrupted their annual, charity baseball game at Nationals Park.
Earnest insisted today that Obama made the last minute trip to the game to get out of the White House and should 'solidarity' with members of his party as they took on Republicans in the baseball diamond.
'I wasn't there, so I didn't overhear,' what was said, he told a reporter who asked if the president talked to Democrats participating in the game about trade. 'I don't know if he had a chance to twist any arms.
Either way, it's unlikely that Obama's drop-in at the game changed any minds, he argued, downplaying the president's desperate lobbying campaign.
Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, among others, had already met with lawmakers on their own turf this week to try to convince wayward Democrats of the benefits of the multi-national free trade deal Obama's trying to secure.
'Everybody from the president on down,including many members of his team that are at the White House and his economic team across the administration, are making an aggressive case to members of Congress about why they should support this trade package' White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday.
But a close call on Thursday afternoon during a temperature-taking vote caused a re-calibration at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Obama, faced with the possibility of failure on the formal measure Friday, did something he's rarely done since moving across town: go to the nation's Capitol.
The move was reminiscent of a December 2009 surprise visit Obama paid to the legislature amid the healthcare debate. The Affordable Care Act went on to pass several months later.

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'Are we having fun yet?' Obama asked fans sitting on the Democratic side of the stadium. The president brought with him two dozen of his White House-brewed beers for the festivities' victors


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Republicans seemed confident this week that they would be able to cobble together enough votes, by working in concert with the White House, to arrive at the desired outcome.
'We have the votes we hoped to have,' House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, who has become the face of GOP's campaign to authorize the president to fast-track a deal, said Thursday morning.
Ryan told the hosts of Fox and Friends, 'We are where we want to be and we were planning on being. But some Democrats are going to have to support this to get this over the finish line.'
The Republican lawmaker reiterated proponents of the legislation's belief that Americans will 'shape the global economy...or it shapes us.'
'The rest of the world is moving,' he said. 'They’re getting trade agreements—China and Europe—and we’re not. That means we’re getting frozen out of the markets and other people are writing the rules of the global economy. And, as an American who wants to lead and see our country lead, this is why I'm trying to pass trade.'
House Speaker John Boehner called on his colleagues on both sides of the aisle Thursday to vote on favor of the Trade Promotion Authority legislation.
'This vote’s about doing what’s right for the country,' he said at an early afternoon press conference. 'It’s about China out there writing the rules for the global economy, and if we stay on the sidelines, our allies will gravitate back towards China, away from us, and away from our workers.'

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Obama poses for a photo with Michigan Rep. Dan Klidee, the coach of the Democrats' charity baseball team. Democrats beat their Republican colleagues, 5-2

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Obama is pictured here with The Washington Nationals mascots, the 'Racing Presidents.' From left to right they are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Obama, William Howard Taft, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. 'I challenged them to a race,' the real POTUS said on his Twitter








Labor groups and progressives were sending lawmakers their own, more sternly worded messages, about voting for the trade bill this week: vote in favor of it, and we'll come after your job.
The AFL-CIO and other groups reportedly told Democratic lawmakers normally aligned with them that they'd boost their primary challengers in next year's election and are willing to spend millions of dollars defeating them.
This morning, progressive group Democracy for America issued Democratic members a crystal clear warning: 'If you vote' for any part of the trade package, ''we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you're attacked in 2016, we will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat.'
The left-wing of the Democratic Party came at the White House full-throttle, as well, this week.
California Rep. Brad Sherman on Wednesday at a rally outside the Capitol accused Obama of living in a 'cloister where the only people who can get in are the captains of industry and the titans of Wall Street.'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumpka even sent the president chiding him for singling out labor as the only movement against the trade bill.
'I am sure you are aware,' he said, 'that the critics of the current [Trade Promotion Partnership] encompass a broad, deep, and intellectually impressive swath of public opinion.'
The White House fired back on Thursday at Democrats threatening other Democrats for supporting their party leader's trade legislation. 'What the president has said is that Members of Congress should be more concerned about the jobs of Americans than their own jobs,' the president's spokesman told reporters.
He'd said Wednesday there's a reason that the political process is often compared to 'sausage-making' - 'it’s not particularly appetizing to watch.'
On Thursday, Earnest said Obama called House Speaker Boehner, and 'hope does continue to spring eternal.'

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All eyes were on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to see which way she voted today. Pelosi, pictured here at a Capitol Hill press conference, played coy with her caucus but ultimately decided to buck the president

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Labor groups and progressives were sending lawmakers their own, more sternly worded messages, about voting for the trade bill this week: vote in favor of it, and we'll come after your job. Progressive activists are pictured here at a Tuesday rally outside Pelosi's San Francisco, California office








By that evening, the executive branch was feeling a lot less hopeful about the odds of the Trade Promotion Authority portion of the package passing, and Obama dashed over to Nationals Park, armed with two dozen of his White House-brewed beers that were intended for the games victors, and set to work on his party's holdouts.
The president snapped a few pictures with Democratic lawmakers, shook hands with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul after he struck out at bat and posed with the Nationals' mascots - the 'Racing Presidents.'
The Senate already OK'd the trade bill having worked through its own concerns with the accord, including worries that the final version wouldn't include strong enough labor protections for workers.
If the two chambers can work out their differences, Obama will be free to make a final offer to Pacific nations to open up trade with their countries. Congress and the public will have 60 days to review the deal before the legislative branch has to decide whether to accept or reject it.
By agreeing to give the president fast-track authority through the Trade Promotion legislation, lawmakers will be signing away their rights to make changes to whatever deal Obama comes back to them with.
But if they don't untie the president's hands, members of the Pacific Rim negotiating group say there will no treaty at all.
Obama's visit to Capitol Hill this morning raised suspcicions that the trade bill was on the verge of being thwarted in the House. The president spoke to Democrats in private for just over a half an hour, before he emerged and told the press, 'I don't think you ever nail anything down around here. It's always moving.'

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