Boeing is weighing a formal protest at the award of a $35bn (£17.3bn, €23bn) US air force tanker contract to EADS, the parent of Airbus. The company says that 44,000 jobs are at risk. The unions and the Democrats are furious – not least with John McCain, who helped to scuttle an earlier deal (after a corruption scandal) that would have given the business to the US company. Mr McCain had even boasted about this victory against wasteful spending, a success he may now regret. Presidential politics and fear of imports are intersecting yet again.

Last week “Naftagate” helped to defeat Barack Obama in Ohio. An adviser reassured Canadian officials that Mr Obama’s hard line on the North American Free Trade Agreement was political positioning, and that the treaty was not in danger. Hillary Clinton pilloried her opponent over this, assuring the workers of Ohio that her own trenchant opposition to Nafta was genuine. If she wins, in other words, the treaty really is in danger. In response, Mr Obama will doubtless harden his own position on trade, which will be no easy task. At this rate, both Democrats will soon be vowing to scrap Nafta altogether, and decrying mere amendment of its terms as appeasement. Delete “war on terror”; insert “war on trade”.