With meteoric gasoline prices, mortgage foreclosures and a lot of anxious Americans, conventional thinking is that economic issues are a bad fit for a Republican like John McCain. The implication is that Democrat Barack Obama would be better on the economy.

Wrong on both counts. Obama is off the mark on economic issues, from his fuzzy on-again, off-again stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement to his plan to fix Social Security by raising taxes on anyone making more than $97,500 annually.

McCain has repeatedly said economics is not his strong suit, but he shouldn't sell himself short. He has it right on making the Bush tax cuts permanent, and on resisting the temptation to spend billions to bail out homeowners. He's also right to support trade, despite fierce opposition from protectionists.

Trade was at the top of the agenda during McCain's visit last week to Colombia, where he again voiced his support for the Colombian Free Trade Agreement, which was been stalled in Congress by Democrats. McCain thinks the trade deal makes economic sense but also serves foreign policy interests. He claims that helping the Colombian people through trade would support the regime of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is battling leftist guerrillas who use kidnapping and cocaine trafficking to fund subversion.

We'll buy that. But there's another reason to support free trade: It encourages rather than stifles competition. You remember competition. It's one of those things that make us better, but it also frightens a lot of people into imposing tariffs and closing off markets. Americans can compete with anyone in the world if they have the right product at the right price and come with the right frame of mind.

That's an idea worth preserving. Barack Obama doesn't understand that. John McCain does.

Reprinted from The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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