In a remarkably inept and embarrassing political stumble, President Barack Obama’s trek to the Caterpillar plant in East Peoria to pitch his stimulus package re-focused the spotlight on the Democratic death-grip on the Colombia free-trade pact.

Passage of the measure would mean for Caterpillar hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new or saved jobs, without costing the taxpayers any money—unlike the wildly extravagant $1.2 trillion (with interest) stimulus package. Yet, Obama opposes the pact and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stubbornly has refused to allow the agreement to come to the floor for a vote.

Caterpillar, the heavy equipment manufacturer, is one of the nation’s main exporters to Colombia and would be a chief beneficiary of free trade with the South American nation. Under the present, skewed trade rules, Colombia gets to import many products into the United States duty-free, but tariffs of $100,000 or more are imposed on big Cats delivered to Colombia. Democratic opposition to the agreement is unarguably a job killer in Illinois.

Here is a company that recently announced that it has to lay off more than 22,000 workers, and Obama’s handlers recklessly sent him to a town that is particularly aggrieved by Democratic protectionist policies. Yes, Obama heard some applause, but imagine the whoops that he could have generated here if he had taken the opportunity to announce support for the Colombia free trade pact instead of repeating his increasingly tired stimulus rhetoric in rote fashion.

Rep. Peter Roskam, a Republican representing a west suburban Chicago district, couldn’t let the irony pass without comment and to express a wish that the new president would press for approval. “Here’s the issue,” he said in an interview: The president, in his inaugural speech, said let’s set aside the worn-out dogmas. Clinging to them has not been helpful….These are childish things.” A prime example, Roskam said, is opposition to the agreement. “It’s a worn-out bumper sticker that needs to be pulled off the car. [The President] should take his own advice.”

Particularly ironic, Roskam said, is the fact that the creation of significant numbers of jobs at Caterpillar “wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a cent,” when Obama’s stimulus package would cost almost $800 billion upfront. Moreover, job creation is a certain result of the free trade pact, but no one can be certain about the beneficial impact of the stimulus’ spending free-for-all.

Democrats, who like to view themselves as progressive, can be accused of clinging to more than one outdated dogma, but the party’s intransigence on free trade is hard to beat. The idea that free trade is, on balance, bad for America because it exports jobs is a Democratic mantra, demagogically chanted without regard to the reality. Thus, Pelosi sits on pro-worker legislation that organized labor opposes for reasons of gross self-interest. Meanwhile, Canada has approved a free trade agreement with Colombia, meaning that more Caterpillar-like jobs could be leaving America for our neighbor. This is insane.

Caterpillar Chairman Jim Owens, a staunch supporter of the pact, may have disappointed Obama when the two appeared together on the same platform. Instead of saying that Caterpillar might be able to rehire if the stimulus plan passed, as was first reported, Owens warned that his company probably would have to lay off even more workers before thinking about rehiring. As for the supposed “quick fix” that the package is supposed to bring, even if passed, it wouldn’t affect the economy until late this year or early 2010, he said.

True, a damaging “Buy American” provision in the stimulus package was softened to a vague stipulation that U.S. policies must continue to conform to World Trade Organization. Here was a hopeful sign when Obama said “we can’t send a protectionist message,” and that the Senate responded by removing the original language in the House version. Would, though, that the protectionist language had been removed altogether.

Aside from the benefits for the domestic job market, the free trade pact has one other significant impact: It helps strengthen a country that has freed itself from the narco-terrorism that victimized Colombia for years. And it fortifies an American friend in opposition to the anti-democratic Hugo Chavez who lurks over the border in Venezuela.

For all the praise heaped on Obama and his team for the politically astute campaign they ran, it is had to explain why they would show up in Peoria, a city so highly dependent on trade. If former President George W. Bush had made such a blunder, we would never have heard the end of it from the media and late-night comedians. It makes on wonder whether Obama will turn out to be no smarter than Bush.

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Dennis Byrne is a member of the Chicago Daily Observer Editorial Board