At Forbes.com, Andrea Hopkins writes:

The fury over Mankiw's open declaration of what many consider a core tenet of economics -- that a free flow of goods and services benefits consumers over time by lowering prices -- sent a ripple of self-censorship through political circles. This is not the year to muse about the benefits of free trade....

"There's no question that this would not be as much of an issue if it was the first year of a presidential term instead of the last year," said Catherine Mann, an economist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for International Economics in Washington...

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan -- who is appointed, not elected -- has been one of the few prominent officials to warn against attacks on free trade, saying more attention should be paid to boosting the skills of American workers to prepare them for the jobs of the future.

While acknowledging the pain inflicted by the outsourcing trend, Greenspan said it had opened a worrying chasm between those hurt by the phenomenon and economists who back the benefits of trade liberalization...

Still, Mann believes political rhetoric may cool once the campaign spotlight dims, as lawmakers -- already struggling with tight budgets -- tally the cost of paying U.S. workers to provide work that can be done much more cheaply overseas.

"When people start to cost out some of these restrictions, the legislation quietly goes away," Mann said.

Besides, she argued, all the attention might just prompt politicians to begin the painful task of reshaping the U.S. workforce for the future -- a process that will require big changes in education and retraining programs.