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The View from Ward 177 [Milwaukee]
The National Review Online ^ | June 5, 2012 | Robert Costa

Posted on 06/06/2012 1:26:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

Milwaukee, Wis. — As the polls closed, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Central, I was an observer at an elementary school in Ward 177, a blue-collar area, just a few steps from Democrat Tom Barrett’s campaign office on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The lines were strong for the first hour, but during the last hour, things began to fizzle. Outside, there were a couple of college-age men making $25 an hour to canvass, but even that pair — two fraternity types — were unethusiastic. “I’m not going to Barrett’s party,” one told me. He was going to spend his money on beer and gas for his Hyundai. He’s made $200 a day for the past two weeks, he said, and now it’s time to party. At 8 p.m., he put his campaign sheets in his folder and walked to his car.

Inside the school’s gymnasium, it was quiet chaos. Nearly half of the arriving voters were not registered. Now, same-day registration is legal in Wisconsin, so that wasn’t a surprise. But what was surreal was watching the unregistered people sit down at the plastic folding table and pull out evey kind of identification you can imagine — crumpled cable bills, old unemployment checks, etc.

There was also a heated exchange between Peter Zelchenko, an Obama-supporting election observer, and Percy Dorsey, the election official at the site. Zelchenko was frustrated with Dorsey for keeping everyone in one line. To speed things up, Zelchencko wanted it to be split into two lines. At one point, when the line was 15 deep, Zelchenko approached Dorsey with another complaint. “Please stay over there!” Dorsey said, his voice rising. The two eyed each other angrily but kept their distance.

“I’m from Chicago,” Zelchenko told me. “I was sent up here, supporting the Obama campaign, to watch for voter disenfranchisement.” To put it mildly, Dorsey didn’t enjoy the observations from Zelchenko, who was watching the poll site all day. “I called my people after he wouldn’t listen to me,” Zelchenko said. “He was yelling at me during the afternoon.”

By 8 p.m., I had seen enough. There was a lot of eyebrow-raising registrations, but as a young mother told me, that’s how things always are in Milwaukee on Election Day. Perhaps. But today at least, the biggest takeaway from this polling site was the Zelchenko spat, the hardly packed gym, and the college guys who were there for the money, not for the politics. Obama supporters clearly put a lot of sweat into this race, but in the end, the outsiders from Chicago and elsewhere couldn’t swing it their way — even in Milwaukee.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obamaoperatives; union; voterregistration; wisconsinrecall; wisconsinshowdown
Wisconsin gubernatorial recall results interactive map


1 posted on 06/06/2012 1:26:35 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: All

Something to check out here: the normally left-wing site Reddit has its Scott Walker thread totally dominated by conservative views. The only thing the Democrats have to say in their defense is that the election was “bought”.

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/un69y/scott_walker_wins_wisconsin/


2 posted on 06/06/2012 1:36:11 AM PDT by Avery Morrow
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I haven’t been to Milwaukee (my hometown) in years. Where is Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard?


3 posted on 06/06/2012 1:38:08 AM PDT by The people have spoken
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To: Avery Morrow
Winston Churchill - 4 June 1940

“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

__________________________________________________

Wisconsin did not "flag or fail."

4 posted on 06/06/2012 1:44:23 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: The people have spoken

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=APs&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1149&bih=841&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=MLK+drive,+milwaukee&fb=1&gl=us&hq=MLK+drive,+milwaukee&cid=0,0,367756608539359477&ei=9BjPT8DNFMLc0QGkuKGhCA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ_BIwAA


5 posted on 06/06/2012 1:47:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Avery Morrow

” The only thing the Democrats have to say in their defense is that the election was “bought”. “ <<<

Yes, and they sold that line, right down the line, into the streets, to the poor and tearful young union guy who thought the world had ended. I felt sorry for him.

He actually knew nothing other than union world view and broke up expressing the loss, while speaking to the CNN reporter. He kept repeating how they were outspent $36,000 to $4,000, sincerely believing that alone was the reason and blaming anyone who might not have voted at all.

These kids are entirely indoctrinated beginning in grade school, at home, at work and into adulthood. A tragedy of public education, especially in blue states.


6 posted on 06/06/2012 1:47:38 AM PDT by RitaOK (No Romney! Few are unafraid, but I thank God for the few. We are the resistance.)
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To: RitaOK; All

Native American reservations, inner city [Milwaukee] minorities and leftist education strongholds [Madison] were union/Obama centers of Mayor Barrett (D) support.

Interactive WI map (by counties) of Walker recall results.

7 posted on 06/06/2012 2:08:55 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Outstanding post of Churchill's words.

Thanks, Cincinatus’ Wife - wonderful quote to wake up to in the morning!

Very invigorating!

BTTT.

8 posted on 06/06/2012 2:57:27 AM PDT by hummingbird (Breitbart and Spartacus: here, there, everywhere.)
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To: The people have spoken

Same place it is in all towns that have an MLK Blvd.

The poor part of town you don’t walk in after dark.

Big tiff in our town when they went looking for a street to name MLK Blvd. The better part didn’t want it and the poor part said it was going there because it was the poor part - and they didn’t want it.

So we named a just completed Highway Loop the MLK Blvd.


9 posted on 06/06/2012 3:25:15 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: The people have spoken

(I’ll bet) It is smack in the middle of the worst gang-infested cesspit or welfare-funded project area in the city.


10 posted on 06/06/2012 4:11:47 AM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Thank you, Cince’. Very interesting stuff. If America fails to capture our public schools and toss the petrie dish they have clearly become for growing disciples for Marxism, we change nothing but the page on the calendar marking more of the same.


11 posted on 06/06/2012 4:42:41 AM PDT by RitaOK (No Romney! Few are unafraid, but I thank God for the few. We are the resistance.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Perhaps 0bama should have sent out an extra ‘tweet’. One clearly isn’t enough. (what a sorry piece of s#!t that little bitch of a ‘man’ is)


12 posted on 06/06/2012 5:10:17 AM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;

Not widely reported was that at the end of that speech, Churchill muttered "And if they do land, we'll beat the bastards with the butt ends of broken beer bottles, which is bloody all we've got" (Eisenhower And Churchill: The Partnership That Saved the World)

13 posted on 06/06/2012 5:24:00 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (If I can't be persuasive, I at least hope to be fun.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
But what was surreal was watching the unregistered people sit down at the plastic folding table and pull out evey kind of identification you can imagine — crumpled cable bills, old unemployment checks, etc.

I'm going to guess that the dems went looking for anybody who had moved away, but still had some piece of paper with their old address.

It may be productive for the Repubs to spot-check those same-day registrations, see who doesn't actually live in the district, and file criminal complaints against each one. They may not convict them, with Dem judges, but seeing people have to go to court will discourage fraud in November.

14 posted on 06/06/2012 6:19:51 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (If I can't be persuasive, I at least hope to be fun.)
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