Saturn is exactly on IC of Washington's CanQ today. The House of Represenatives just defeated Obama's desired trade bill. Normally sympathetic news outlets are using terms like "stunning defeat" and "hopes smashed." Here's the LA Times breaking news report, for example:
CNN broke the news thus:President Obama’s trade agenda unraveled today in a stunning setback delivered by his own party as the House rejected legislation to bolster a controversial trade pact he is pursuing with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.
Obama dashed to Capitol Hill for a rare early morning meeting with Democrats but failed to generate the votes needed to pass the measure.
It is unclear when lawmakers will try again for passage of the so-called fast-track authority, which has already been approved by the Senate.
NY Times wrote:In a stunning defeat for the White House, the House of Representatives voted down a measure that would create an assistance program for workers displaced by free trade agreements.
This measure's passage was required before lawmakers could vote on trade promotion authority, and the move throws President Obama's proposed trade deal with Asia into jeopardy.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she would vote against key elements of the President's trade agenda, issuing a fatal blow just moments before voting began.
House Democrats rebuffed a dramatic personal appeal from President Obama on Friday, torpedoing his ambitious push to expand his trade negotiating power — and, quite likely, his chance to secure a legacy-defining trade accord spanning the Pacific Ocean.
In a remarkable rejection of a president they have resolutely backed, House Democrats voted to kill assistance to workers displaced by global trade, a program their party created and has stood by for four decades. By doing so, they brought down legislation granting the president trade promotion authority — the power to negotiate trade deals that cannot be amended or filibustered by Congress — before it could even come to a final vote.
“We want a better deal for America’s workers,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader who has guided the president’s agenda for two terms and was personally lobbied by Mr. Obama until the last minute.