Another (fictitious) dispatch from my anonymous correspondent on the campaign trail:

LANCASTER, Pa. — Sen. Barack Obama told a crowd of enthusiastic supporters here that the North Korean concept of “Juche,” its stated policy of complete economic and social independence and isolation, is “intriguing” and worthy of further study as a possible antidote to the economic malaise of the state in recent years.

The comment on Juche (pronounced “joo-CHEH”) came as a response to a question from a voter who expressed doubt that a repeal of NAFTA would help the region’s economy. Obama’s remark took the campaign’s message of economic nationalism and support for the weakened manufacturing sectors of the upper Midwest well beyond the rhetoric espoused by his Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

“Trade is not helping the Pennsylvania economy get back its jobs,” Obama told the questioner. “And it may be time to quit tinkering with a system that stopped working a long time ago and get back to the basics.”

“Now we’re talking!” enthused Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a D.C. think tank. “Someone finally had the guts to go all the way. Hallelujah!”

A spokesperson for the Obama campaign stressed that the senator was not articulating an official policy position but merely discussing aloud an idea that the campaign’s economic advisers have been contemplating for some time.

Obama said that his one reservation with such an economic system is that North Korea’s economy has struggled a bit in recent years. He attributed those struggles more to execution than policy, along with a rash of bad weather. Autarkic economic self-reliance, he averred, would provide a needed tonic to the U.S. economy and work especially well in the recession-plagued Midwest.

CNN broadcaster Lou Dobbs, a noted critic of U.S. trade policy in recent years, extended cautious praise for Obama’s words. “American economic woes are far more severe than North Korea’s, and we need a stronger dose of Juche than what Pyongyang employs. Pennsylvania would benefit little from a system that merely closes off imports from other countries. To truly help, we need to allow the state to ban imports from other states as well. Obama’s comments were a little timorous for me and revealed how out of touch he and the rest of the D.C. elites really are.”

Obama’s audience seemed quite receptive to the idea. “I’ve never heard of Juche before, but when he explained it a bit I thought it made perfect sense,” said Thaddeus Verhoff, an unemployed sheet welder from nearby Mt. Joy.

Other analysts hailed the proposal as a deft political move. “Rather than continuing to take baby steps around each other, Obama has jumped ahead to the inevitable end point of the debate without giving Senator Clinton any room to get to his left,” said John Cavanaugh, a columnist at Roll Call. “All she can do now is criticize him for being too protectionist, which doesn’t fly in Democratic circles.”

The Clinton team has yet to formally respond to Obama’s comments. A campaign spokesperson did indicate to reporters that Clinton would “stoop to no one” in her defense of state economic sovereignty.