Last November I put Beer on McCain's fortunes, and while my opinion has sunk back to neutral, I still believe he will win the election, regardless of reasoning: It's just a gut feeling.
One positive thing I will repeat about him is on the economic side of the house. Of the three contenders, he is the only person who supports the North American Free Trade agreement. This is not, at this interesting point in time, the most popular agreement between our three nations, but I believe that it is great in many respects. Let me list a few:
1) It is the only policy that the USA has implemented that has brought democracy to another nation. That's right: Economic trade and an influx of cash into Mexico has allowed for elections in the last decade and all but crushed heavy-handed socialist tactics which would otherwise threaten Mexico's stability. Without much government intervention from the states, America has enabled an environment where democracy is fostering, and while in some rather ugly stages, is frankly a mass improvement from two decades ago when there was no trade. This food shortage and rising food prices only will allow the farmers to profit further, so long as compensation is evenly distrubuted.
And with the rising costs of living worldwide, this will happen.
2) NAFTA is the only effective agreement that corks the Brain Drains and respective immigration into America. Fancy as with higher trade, the quality of education and compensation, and thus the quality of life on both sides of the border might just improve.
This is all that comes to mind for now after a few beers.
The reason I fear protectionism is that the more import/export tariffs and restrictions are introduced, the less incentive farmers have to sell to outside markets at a higher profit, and thus less incentive to produce more or at a higher quality. Watch for it in Taiwan, India and Indonesia. There will be some unhappy East Asians by Q42008