Obama has called on China to take the reins off its currency and let it float. Float I tell you! And of course, on the chosen one’s say-so, that malleable and most democratically elected of governments in Beijing is now going to reverse decades of policy and do what Corporate America wants. Riding high from this most famous of diplomatic victories, President Superman will now apparently be working his magic putting a call in to the Taliban to recommend that they, well, you know, stop it.

OK, I’ll stop it. I’ll stop it, because while this Damascene conversion to free trade and open markets is about as convincing as Saddam’s old Information Minister Comical Ali (“they’re nowhere near Baghd…”….kaboom!) and OJ Simpson telling us a story about how they spotted Elvis playing poker with the Loch Ness Monster on the moon, I do actually agree with Obama here. Currencies should float. So in the interests of fairness, you can delete and circle as appropriate:

President Obama, the {lonely hero fighting entrenched rich and powerful special interests for the good of everyday Americans / dangerous Socialist aiming to destroy the Constitution and American way of life} has {cynically tried to mend fences with the business community / stood up once again for the recovery of the American economy} by taking a {noble / hypocritical} stance which is entirely {consistent with / contradictory to} his stance on free trade agreements, which he has been {reviewing to ensure fairness for American and foreign workers / sitting on for purposes of political posturing}.

But even if the politics of this are as transparent as Sarah Palin’s campaign of self-promotion in the media, I can’t really say Corporate America has emerged from this looking any better. China’s currency manipulation is a form of protectionism. Corporate America is against protectionism only when it suits it. Compare the clamor for China to float with the silence when the rules for a major defense contract are written so that only Boeing, and not its European competitors, can win the bid. Recall the silence over Bush’s steel tariffs. Note how big agriculture takes its subsidies and shuts up. It seems politicians don’t have a monopoly on hypocrisy.