[Cowen]

> Political fallout would be huge if this thing doesn't go through, right? All players in the game are heavily invested in this passing because without it, years are wasted, so I'm expecting it to pass.

This depends on perspective.

In terms of domestic elections, chances are the TPP won't make a real difference in countries like the US or Canada one way or another. Foreign policy generally only affects domestic elections at its extremes, e.g. winning/losing a war. Voters might be for or against TPP for any number of reasons, but chances are when they actually step into the voting booth, TPP will be low on their list of reasons for voting whichever way they do.

In terms of international relations, reneging on a huge deal that was painstakingly negotiated over seven years is obviously never a good thing. But it's hard to say how or when that could come back to bite whichever countries back out of the deal.

[jessaustin]

...e.g. winning/losing a war.

Is "winning" a possible outcome from wars? It hasn't happened during my parents' lifetimes. All of the losing we've been doing doesn't seem to have affected our commitment to outspending the rest of world combined to support the military-industrial complex. Do elections have something to do with that?