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Ignore the spin: Wisconsin was a disaster for Democrats and President Obama
Daily Caller ^ | 06/05/2012 | Thomas Grier

Posted on 06/05/2012 8:51:51 PM PDT by Qbert

If you pause and listen carefully, you might be able to hear the despair coming from Jim Messina, President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, and David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist and communications director, as the meaning of Wisconsin’s recall election becomes clear.

In the final hours before Governor Scott Walker’s victory, with the writing on the wall, President Obama and his campaign could only muster a tweet and a last-minute video for challenger Tom Barrett. But do not let that tepid support fool you: Democrats and their union allies spent an astronomical amount on a judicial election, four state legislative recalls and the recall of Governor Walker, only to lose.

The spin has already begun. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the Wisconsin recall election “probably won’t tell us much about a future race.” Regardless of what you hear, the results are a colossal failure for Democrats and President Obama’s re-election efforts. Even former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell, speaking on MSNBC last week, said the recall election was a “mistake.”

Democrats, Big Labor and Team Obama initially put all their chips on the table, organizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort to unseat Walker. The day before the recall, Wisconsin’s MacIver Institute illustrated just how much money Big Labor has spent: more than $21 million. Earlier in the month, the MacIver Institute put up a matrix to “put an end to any stories that Big Labor, the Democratic Party and other left-wing organizations aren’t going all out to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.” The spin aside, Team Obama, Big Labor and Democrats were heavily invested and suffered a huge loss in Wisconsin.

The recall sums up a season of abject failure for Democrats in Wisconsin. Since taking office in January 2011, Governor Walker has pushed for audacious spending cuts, comprehensive improvements to public-employee union benefits and the most agitating reform to the union monolith: lasting changes to Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws.

Democratic legislators responded by childishly fleeing the state in order to prevent a quorum in the State Senate, while the Republican majority assured passage of Walker’s budget. After weeks of wringing their hands over their absent colleagues, the Republicans found a way to pass Walker’s budget.

In response, the left tried to invalidate Walker’s reforms by attempting to alter the composition of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Liberals organized a “record setting” challenge to incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. Prosser’s challenger, ultra-progressive JoAnne Kloppenburg, was the left’s answer to all their union reform problems. The total cost of the race between Prosser and Kloppenburg topped $3 million. In the end, Prosser won re-election and Walker’s reforms were upheld.

The Democrats’ war on Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republicans continued, with groups organizing the recall of four state senators in an attempt to recapture the Wisconsin Senate and block Walker’s reforms. In their attempt to take back the Wisconsin Senate, Democrats and their backers spent $23.4 million, with outside groups spending $18.6 million against Republicans. But the attempt failed and Republicans triumphed.

Now, Democrats have lost yet another high-profile Wisconsin race. With this string of events taking place in a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984 and is considered the birthplace of modern progressivism, Republicans must be starting to like their chances in November. Once considered an unassailable Democratic stronghold, Wisconsin is moving into the almost unthinkable swing-state territory.

As if the wind was not blowing hard enough against Democrats and Team Obama, Governor Walker’s reforms have been a resounding success. Walker cut a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes or curtailing state services, and he is expected to create a $150 million budget surplus by the end of the year.

While Barack Obama won Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, it’s important to remember that George W. Bush came close to winning the state in 2000 and 2004, missing by 0.22 and 0.4 percent respectively. The efforts by Democrats this season have forced Republicans to build a grassroots machine. Their actions have proven to be very successful, pushing the estimated voter turnout to a whopping 60 to 65 percent of all adults. This machine will no doubt be in full operation in November, causing Axelrod’s and Messina’s hearts to flutter.

President Obama and Democrats are in trouble and no amount of Washington spin will change the facts in Wisconsin. Unions had their way for decades, but times change. And this time, it is not just the future of organized labor that is in peril, it is the political future of one of their biggest supporters: President Obama.

Thomas Grier writes on constitutional law, campaigns and elections, and pro-growth policy. He holds degrees from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Arizona State University. He lives in Arizona with his beautiful wife and two amazing children.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 2012; elections; milwaukee; obama; scottwalker; tombarrett; unions; walker; wisconsin; wisconsinshowdown
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To: Qbert

Even busing in ‘rat voters without IDs from Michigan was not enough to undo this landslide.


21 posted on 06/05/2012 9:18:08 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Stop the destruction in 2012 or continue the decline)
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To: Qbert

Pray that the GOP in DC can find their gonads ASAP as there has been a severe shortage for some time.


22 posted on 06/05/2012 9:18:48 PM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Qbert
RATs have just made the claim that they lost because they were outspent 10-1 Martin O'mally (D),
earlier they were saying 8-1 Juan Williams (ASS) and before that it wasn't mentioned that I heard.

Tomorrow: it was close and it's not a big deal, move on.


Hey Obama, WE WON you jerk.

23 posted on 06/05/2012 9:27:00 PM PDT by MaxMax
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To: Baynative

Why is that legal? No one is allowed to display any type of political propaganda at a voting place and here is the usurpers poster (huge) plastered on the wall????? I don’t get it!


24 posted on 06/05/2012 9:30:18 PM PDT by jcsjcm (This country was built on exceptionalism and individualism. In God we Trust - Laus Deo)
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To: ExTexasRedhead

Yep. When they follow Conservative principles and have a spine, they win in landslides (Walker, Reagan, etc.); when they get weak-kneed and compromise on Dem terms... they lose.


25 posted on 06/05/2012 9:47:59 PM PDT by Qbert ("The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry" - William F. Buckley, Jr.)
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To: Elle Bee

Quite simple...public employees should have no better benefits and perks than those of their employers , We the People.

That simple, common sense law, would have our public employees far more concerned with the welfare of their Employers.


26 posted on 06/05/2012 9:55:33 PM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: Baynative

Thanks for the link Baynative.

I wonder what school that picture was taken at in Milwaukee.


27 posted on 06/05/2012 10:02:32 PM PDT by Qbert ("The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry" - William F. Buckley, Jr.)
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To: Elle Bee

Saw your post above on another thread as well. Great! Can’t see it too many times. Most people know that unions are supposed to protect workers from ‘greedy’ corporate employers who hold ‘unfair’ bargaining positions. Almost no one extrapolates from that the purpose of public sector unions must be to protect their membership from the beneficial owners of their employers: us. The absurdity of it strains imagination. Like so much of the insanity the Left foists on the nation to advance their mercenary or bizarre agendas.

They have gotten away with this for decades! Perhaps, with Wisconsin, we’re seeing the whole thing come apart before it completely and irrevocably bankrupts the whole of society.


28 posted on 06/05/2012 10:53:01 PM PDT by fire and forget
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To: Catsrus
Then they made sure to point out that the voters in WI favor Obama over Romney by 9 points.

The presstitutes have a serious problem. Walker was called even on exit polls but he won by about 10 points.

Why wouldn't anyone with an IQ even approaching room temperature expect Romney to gain +10 since he's a Republican?

One possible conclusion is that the presstitutes are all idiots with low IQs. :-)

The other more likely possibility is that the Prestitutes are so biased, they can't comprehend the fact Americans are tired of our race baiting, lying, criminal, corrupt and incompetent POTUS. Obama has to go and the biased press needs to be digging ditches for money, they obviously are not investigative reporters.

If Romney is even in Wisconsin already, the Dems will be slaughtered in another landslide in November, even worse than the 2010 mid-terms.

29 posted on 06/05/2012 11:01:17 PM PDT by politicianslie (Obama: Our first Muslim PRESIDENT,destroying America $1 Trillion at a time! And America sleeps)
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To: Qbert

Holy crap, I know the writer of this story!!!! He’s a great kid


30 posted on 06/05/2012 11:12:24 PM PDT by cmsgop ( The left always accuses the right for the sins of the left. from FReeper Just Lori, RIP)
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To: Qbert

:-)


31 posted on 06/05/2012 11:14:20 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (WA DC E$tabli$hment; DNC/RNC/Unionists...Brazilian saying: "$@me Old $hit; different flie$". :^)
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To: Qbert

These same polls had Walker/Barrett at 50/50 today. We all know how that turned out. Does anyone really think that exit polls, with all the out-of-state union goons hanging outside the polls, were going to be accurate? A dozen thugs stand between you and your car, and you’re going to admit to voting for Walker, or intending to vote against Obama in November?


32 posted on 06/05/2012 11:15:04 PM PDT by kevao
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To: mo
Quite simple...public employees should have no better benefits and perks than those of their employers , We the People.

Theirs shouldn't even be AS GOOD as ours. We produce wealth and our segment of society could survive if theirs didn't exist. We might not like certain things about it, but we could survive. They CANNOT survive without us. We create the wealth that pays for their cars, houses, food, health care, etc.

We must exist for them to exist, while the reverse is not true.

33 posted on 06/06/2012 1:23:10 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: kevao
A dozen thugs stand between you and your car, and you’re going to admit to voting for Walker, or intending to vote against Obama in November?

That one would actually be a tough choice for me. On the one hand, lying to them and storing up frustration to come crashing down upon them later, vs. sticking your finger in their eye right now. Tough choice.

34 posted on 06/06/2012 1:27:01 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Qbert
Wisconsin gubernatorial recall results interactive map
35 posted on 06/06/2012 1:28:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: jcsjcm

ok....putting my spin doctor hat on a dim could argue since the poster is from the 2008 campaign it is a historical artifact and not “political”


36 posted on 06/06/2012 1:40:16 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Still Thinking

That’s why our Local. And federal governments are “prone” to run deficits..our employees looking out for themselves.


37 posted on 06/06/2012 3:32:32 AM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: jcsjcm

I damned well got arrested in 1988 for wearing a Ron Reagan T-shirt to the polling place. Not making a statement, I just put it on to do yard work and went to vote! “Disturbing the Peace”, my ass.


38 posted on 06/06/2012 3:46:00 AM PDT by Safetgiver
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To: Ronin
Oh MAN... I can’t wait for the next DU funnies!!!!

While you're waiting you could look here.
39 posted on 06/06/2012 3:47:21 AM PDT by Peet (Everything has an end -- only the sausage has two.)
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To: Argus

“Walker is the bravest leader in America. He should be our President.”

If only the Speaker of the House of the US Congress were a leader. The House has the power of the purse, yet for the past two years under Republican leadership it has continued to support out of control deficit spending. No courage, no victory.


40 posted on 06/06/2012 4:18:41 AM PDT by Soul of the South
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