Free Trade Helped

As we've discussed here and here, free trade is needed but with a some tweaking. Not in the form of more tarriffs or other forms of protectionism but better globalization of our education and emphasis on various trades.
According to this article by C. Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, our countries balance of international trade has improved greatly. It makes the case that free trade has saved us from recession this past year.

The candidates deserve credit for recognizing the challenges posed by trade and foreign investment. But their tone obscures a major success story: the dramatic improvement in our balance of international trade. This export boom has saved us from recession over the past year and, despite the recent financial turmoil, is likely to continue doing so. It is generating at least 2 million new and high-paying jobs, about half of them from increased foreign sales by the beleaguered manufacturing sector.

Fresh evidence of the trend came last month, when the second-quarter growth rate for the U.S. economy was revised upward, to 3.3 percent. A record surge in net exports accounted for almost all of that expansion.
Our external balance has improved by more than $200 billion as calculated for gross domestic product (GDP) purposes, cutting the previous deficit by more than one-third.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development foresees continued modest expansion of the U.S. economy during 2008-09, with 80 percent of the impetus coming from trade improvement.
This favorable swing of at least $300 billion in the "real" trade balance translates into more than 2 million new jobs in the U.S. economy. These export jobs pay 15 to 20 percent more than the national average.

Here is a breakdown of Mr. Obama's free trade stance and here is the link to the free trade section of his web site.
Here is a breakdown of Mr. McCain's free trade stance and here is the link to the free trade section of his web site.