Free Republic

One disappointment is that Mitt Romney failed to appear in Wisconsin during the recall campaign. We doubt the recall vote is a prediction of what will happen in November, and Mr. Romney will have to make his own sale to Badger State voters. But the presumptive Presidential nominee could do worse than associate himself with the GOP reform Governors who were elected in 2010 and are turning around their states. If voters are in a mood to reward leaders willing to tackle hard problems, Mr. Romney should meet their expectations. (Emphasis Mine)

Wow. Where to start? The "it's gonna be a late night in Madison" notion was virtually over by the end of Happy Hour -- which no doubt did cause some very late nights instead in Washington and Chicago. With little or no happiness at all. And naturally there were also the comparisons to the vibes of the night Scott Brown took down the Kennedy seat in 2009. More on both of these dynamics shortly. The real story is: what happened this spring in Wisconsin was not a recall election at all. Pure and simple, it was a mulligan. A childish...

CBS News) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker retained his seat in the election that sought to recall him from office, defeating his challenger Tom Barrett in this election (as he did in the 2010 governor's race). Walker won with strong support from Republicans, conservatives, Tea Party supporters and a majority of votes from independents. Walker is the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election. Gov. Gray Davis of California was recalled in 2003, and in 1921, North Dakota's Governor Lynn Frazier of was ousted due to a recall. The heated recall race began amid the controversy created when...

Given the decisive nature of Scott Walker’s recall victory, it’s not likely that Democrats who were prepared to cry foul if they lost in a squeaker will be talking about a “stolen election” after he won with 54 percent of the vote. Instead the main Democratic talking point in the days after their recall debacle will be to claim that not only is it not a harbinger of more defeats in November but that it may not even have an impact on how Wisconsin will vote for president. Democrats were encouraged by exit polls that showed President Obama holding a...

State Senate - District 21 - Special General 60 of 60 Precincts Reporting - 100% Name Party Votes Vote % Lehman, John Dem 36,255 51% Wanggaard, Van (i) GOP 35,476 49% Are these results final? GOP lost the Senate control? I see no stories yet, But Ariana's Huffy site claims Dems take Senate. It hinged on this seat in Racine

Sarah Palin had this to say after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was declared the winner of Tuesday’s recall election: “Obama’s goose is cooked.” “I think that the Democrats there understand that the president’s no-show represents the fact that Obama’s goose is cooked,” Palin told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News soon after networks called Walker the projected winner of the historic recall. She was referring to President Barack Obama’s decision not to campaign for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. As she denounced Obama’s “hopey changey stuff”, the former Alaska governor continued: “More and more Americans realize that what Wisconsin has just...

“Tonight, the really big winner in the Wisconsin recall election is President Obama,” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said at the top of his Tuesday program after parent network NBC called the race for Gov. Scott Walker over Democrat Tom Barrett. Over the past several months, the left-leaning hosts at MSNBC have put a lot of emphasis on the Wisconsin recall, saying it was important for current Walker to be defeated in order to maintain the American middle class. “John Heilemann, I said at the top of the show that President Obama big winner tonight because in the exit polls we...

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...

Public sector unions have reached their high water mark. Let the cleanup begin as the red ink recedes. Despite a last-minute smear campaign accusing Scott Walker of fathering an illegitimate love child, the governor’s recall election victory sends a clear message that should resonate around the nation: The fiscal cancer devouring state budgets has a cure, and he has found it. The costly defeat for the entrenched union interests that tried to oust Walker in retribution for challenging their power was marked by President Obama’s refusal to lend his weight to the campaign for fear of being stained by defeat....

Karl Rove was talking about the Repub blow-out tonight. We already know people lied to the exit poll-takers. Rove mentioned that in one traditionally Dem county, Walker had, so far, tens of thousands more votes than expected. Walker is about to make his victory speech.

Should Romney pick Scott Walker for VP? With such a move, Romney could put WI in his column, and help him in other working class states like Ohio and Penn. Not to mention that it will make the prospect of voting for Romney more palatable for conservatives! I cannot see any downsides. What am I missing here?

The early draft of the exit polls this morning showed a 50-50 tie in the Wisconsin recall race. It's still early, but the best bet is that Scott Walker meets or exceeds his margins relative to 2010, which points to a 5-point win or better. This suggests that the early draft of the exit polls were biased toward the Democrats. Nevertheless, channel surfing across CNN and MSNBC just now, I notice talking head after talking head citing the exit polls in some way. Stop it. Clearly, they were wrong and they need to be updated. Until then, stick to the...

...what we should be worried about is the democrat/union retaliation for this blow they were just dealt. I don't know how, when, or where, but there will be a retaliation. My guess would be that they will try to do something at the federal level to limit state's ability to stand up to unions. All unions, not just public sector.

Attached is a theatrical reenactment of tonights recall vote in Wisconsin. Spencer Tracy plays Scott Walker. Ernest Borgnine plays the unions, Robert Ryan plays Barack Obama. Tom Barrett is played by a bar stoll. Enjoy!

Wisconsin count as of 11:30pm EST , Walker 54%, Barrett 45%. NBC calls it for Walker back at about 10pm. It was a classic. I watched MSNBC all night flipping to FNC only briefly from time to time. Over at ‘MSNBC/Destroy Walker-BC’ they were predicting such a close election that they said it would probably require a recall. 'Be prepared for a long night' they repeated. Dem are knocking on a million doors today, boots on the ground', they were calling those who didn't vote in 2010 to shame them to get out and vote. Then with 1% counted Walker...

At 8:42 PM Central, it was already certain to any sentient human being that incumbent Republican Scott Walker had romped contender Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin recall election. Yet, despite the crater-sized percentage gap, here is what CNN, via Reuters, was reporting:Maybe this is why CNN is hemmorhaging viewers like nobody's business. But it's Fox that invents news, right?But what interested me was the main photo on this Reuters page. What the $^*@ is that doing hanging there like some third world Commie dictator's poster in a voting location???

A “blue-collar” voter took the news of Scott Walker's victory a little too hard.

Rep. Jerry Petrowski (R-Stettin) defeated Rep. Donna Seidel (R-Wausau) for an open Senate seat, according to The Associated Press.

It doesn't mean Obama is going to lose, but the failed attempt to recall Scott Walker gives Democrats and organized labor reason to fear an emboldened conservative agenda. It's important to remember, as Democrats cope with their failure to topple Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Tuesday's recall, that this was a fight they chose. Unlike the vast majority of elections, which occur on a regular schedule, the recall was a fight the left picked on purpose. They picked it because they thought they could win. And they were wrong. It wasn't even close. With two-thirds of the votes reported late...

Ed Schultz concluded the segment by making a wild assertion. "Scott Walker could very well be indicted in the coming days," the MSNBC host said.