Scott Walker Victory Shows How Democrats Cheat Themselves

Rolling Stone:

The volume of explanation for why Republican Scott Walker won and Democrat Tom Barrett lost last week's Wisconsin recall election has been overwhelming, which is as it should be: This was a very, very important election.

Read the whole story at Rolling Stone

Comments

[Eidolas]

11:58 AM on 06/19/2012

The reason that Walker won in Wisconsin is not that he outspent the Democrats (the actuall figure is about 2 to 1, not 7 to 1 or higher as the Dems claim), but because, unlike Ohio, the electorate had a year to see the ACT 10 reforms actually work and lower property taxes in those districts that chose to use the tools or whose voters didn't impose a tax increase on themselves. The whole "sky is falling" scenario that the union leaders tried to paint in Wisconsin never came close to passing and, in fact, so many districts did better under ACT 10 that the Dems stopped arguing that point and desperately tried to change the debate to ANYTHING other than what spurred the recall in the first place. It also didn't help the Dems that their candidates were retreads who had already lost to Walker in previous elections.

[peasent]

03:35 AM on 06/19/2012

I wish I could give that women a medal...

[Ladder 1]

09:25 PM on 06/18/2012

More crap from the Rolling Stone!

[newpoliticaljunkie]

08:57 PM on 06/18/2012

What I love about this article are the last few lines - that point to the depths that the Republican Party has fallen......and the total lack of shame in deceiving those they think shouldn't have the vote anyway.......classy group those 1%.........can't wait to see what they pull off next.

[Eidolas]

11:58 AM on 06/19/2012

You'll see in November.

[newpoliticaljunkie]

12:07 PM on 06/19/2012

As will you, I'm sure.........

[deezus]

08:01 PM on 06/18/2012

The article is a joke. This election was over before it even began, and campaign donations and cheating had nothing to do with it. It was not a winnable battle. All the protests and recall did was anger a lot of people. It angered them to the point to want to settle it once and for all. The recallers got some 900,000 signatures, but the silent majority in Wisconsin came out and supported who they elected to serve a full term, and by a higher margin than the last election.

I know that people need a scapegoat for this loss so they are blaming the campaign money, super PACSs, cheating, etc. But the simple fact of the matter is that the recall was just a bad idea. And as a consequence, Gov Scott Walker's profile has been raised tremendously and Wisconsin Democrats will have a hard time trying to defeat him in 2014.

[Ginger23]

08:42 PM on 06/18/2012

Unless he's in prison.

[deezus]

08:54 PM on 06/18/2012

Seems pretty unlikely.

[Kevin Rayburn]

06:12 PM on 06/18/2012

and to think DEMANDING people take your side and vote the way you demand them to isnt working....i wonder why??

[Heru1]

05:26 PM on 06/18/2012

the article misses the elephant in the room: the problem is white supremacy. republicans promote it. democrats compromise with it.

[Ladder 1]

09:31 PM on 06/18/2012

You better research Unions, making a bozo statement like that!

[Heru1]

12:10 PM on 06/21/2012

you better research white racism gringo

[Eidolas]

12:16 PM on 06/19/2012

It's clear that YOU promote it.

[Heru1]

12:07 PM on 06/21/2012

nope, its disgusting and vile

[citizenlegisators]

04:47 PM on 06/18/2012

it still came down to the proximity of the Illinois Democrats and public sector union thuggery
--------------
For years , Wisconsinites have been exposed to them , and in Walker they have seen the difference

[jaabirllx]

05:58 PM on 06/18/2012

'Union thuggery' is the term of choice handed down to the bankster thugs and their ignorant hordes.

[Ginger23]

08:42 PM on 06/18/2012

Haven't you moved out of Illinois YET???

[stopnlisten]

04:29 PM on 06/18/2012

Did anyone read the article? I can only pinpoint a handful who did.

[wobblysow]

03:53 PM on 06/18/2012

Oh for crying out loud. The liberal elite is stuck with believing citizens can't think for themselves about the government they'd like and they are susceptible to all sorts of distortions. None of the money needed to be spent in Wisconsin, the vote was locked when libs climbed thru bathroom windows into the capitol to beat drums. We spent 16 months waiting to vote again, not 16 months trying to figure out who to vote for. What a bunch of condescending pap.

[ez14livin]

04:23 PM on 06/18/2012

so the spending was really just "stimulus" ? how many jobs did it create (outside of media "consultants" and TV stations, if it even added new jobs here)?

[wobblysow]

04:40 PM on 06/18/2012

Nada, except for some out of state union folk.

[edwcorey]

03:33 PM on 06/18/2012

The Democrats are nothing more than the "good" cops; their donut buddies are the Republicans. The fight against unions is bogus. Germany is highly unionized. Yet to build the 9/11 memorial, the Port Authority, a government agency, gave the steel contract to a German company whose workers earn $48 an hour, compared with American union workers who make $32 an hour. The glass contract went to a government subsidized Chinese company. And remember—this is an AMERICAN memorial. Further, the tower was originally billed as the Freedom Tower but the name was discarded after its PR benefit was no longer useful; it's now a commercial real estate tower with subsidized tenants who are paying a fraction of the break-even costs. To add injury to insult, this money-losing boondoggle is being finance by toll increases on middle-class workers coming into Manhattan from New Jersey to work. http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/9/rebuilt_ground_zero_billed_as_national

[Ginger23]

02:59 PM on 06/18/2012

Scott Walker is STILL a $h!tweasel.

[deezus]

08:55 PM on 06/18/2012

But he's our $h!tweasel :)

[Ladder 1]

09:35 PM on 06/18/2012

Why do you hate ginger?

[efffox]

02:39 PM on 06/18/2012

I can only speak for myself as a liberal, but I would give my right arm to see a STRONG liberal leader like FDR just ONCE in my life!!! When polled, most Americans prefer LIBERAL policies - but the Democrats are so weak they can't convince people to vote for the party that would implement those policies. That's pitiful. And the Republicans are so craven, selfish, greedy and DISHONEST that they fight tooth and nail for the millionaires that fund them to the detriment of everyone else - and convince voters that they'll be millionaires one day and should vote for them so when they are, they too can take advantage of the policies that only benefit the rich.

President Obama is an incredibly intelligent, eloquent and honorable man, but despite the fact that most Americans SAY that's what they want - what they VOTE FOR is the party who convinces them - by money, dishonesty or coercion - that their policies are the best - even when it's just not true!!! And that's sad.

[Ladder 1]

09:36 PM on 06/18/2012

With the dramatic rise in government spending on public works, farm subsidies, and various relief programs, the top income tax rate skyrocketed from 24 percent in 1929 to 79 percent in 1935. In 1941 FDR even proposed raising the top rate to 99.5 percent on all income over $100,000 (but ended up settling for 90 percent). Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs were stifled and refused to invest and have their capital confiscated. Unemployment under the New Deal never dropped below 14 percent and averaged over 17 percent.

As the Great Depression persisted, even Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau admitted that the New Deal had been a failure. On May 6, 1939, he confessed, “We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”

[The Mask]

02:31 PM on 06/18/2012

Now there's a GOPer showing how they saluted in the old days.

[efffox]

02:38 PM on 06/18/2012

LMAO!!! Good one.

[muddywood]

03:34 PM on 06/18/2012

That picture says a lot more about the HuffPo than it does about Scott Walker.

[ez14livin]

04:24 PM on 06/18/2012

i know you are, but what am i?

[nothingchanges]

02:01 PM on 06/18/2012

Personal opinion..........

As long as money is the determining factor in who wins and who loses in politics?

WE lose.

We really do have the "best government money can buy"

The wealthy GOT what they paid for. they usually do.

Publicly financed elections, and the elimination of ALL outside influences, money and advertising.............would go a LONG WAYS in making our government more responsive, ethical, and honest.

Too bad I won't live long enough to see it happen in America.

The only people in the U.S. with the legal authority to make those changes, are the members of the Congress of the United States of America.

And the people now occupying those hallowed halls, got elected through a system of legalized corruption. They have absolutely NO incentive, nor intention, of fixing the broken system that is responsible for their being elected.

You get what you pay for America.

Until our elections are publicly funded, the wealthy will continue to benefit, while the rest of us fall further and further behind.

Congress works................for the ones that pay the the most.

That ain't us.

[MrStat1]

02:34 PM on 06/18/2012

If that were true Meg Whitman would have won the governorship in California. Money doesn't equal wins.

[nothingchanges]

03:20 PM on 06/18/2012

In the 2010 elections cycle. 94% of the politicians whose campaigns had the most money........won.

I'd call that a fairly high statistical correlation.

[ez14livin]

04:25 PM on 06/18/2012

don't underestimate the ego factor as a counter in relation to spending...

it was her own money