[briandear]

He's absolutely involved. He's the President. If he opposed this, he could fire anyone he wanted. Also, several aspects of thes negotiations are classified which would make it unlikely that any of this originated at a 'lower level.' The U.S. Trade represenative is an ambassador level appointment which means he was hand-picked by Obama. If this lack of transparency bothers you then you should be voting for Rand Paul or Ted Cruz and against Hilary Clinton. Remember Clinton has been the queen of opacity in terms of releasing information to the public. With Clinton, government will run like this as a default. She stonewalls at Congressional investigations, destroys email servers that could be evidence in criminal investigations.. And on and on. Almost anyone is better in terms of secrecy and disclosure than a Clinton. Obama is a close second: the closed door everything about this administration is disgusting; additionally his appointment of Loretta Lynch as AG is especially horrible considering her views on civil asset forfeiture. I think the Chinese Central Committee has more transparency than the Obama administration.