Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor, notes that Wisconsin is “reasonably good ... platform" for an education speech because we have both "general excellence" and "racial disparities," but that the real reason for the visit is probably to help Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in his bid to become governor:
“Obama won the state big but needs to hang on to it... Barrett is now the only Democrat left standing of the original top-tier candidates, so it’s certainly to the Democratic Party’s interest to have the strongest candidate they can get in the race.”
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Velma Hamilton Middle School. That's my guess. She would have been 100 this year.
Mr. Barrett has just spent a considerable amount of time pissing off the teachers union in Milwaukee.
When is campaign season over?
Interesting, since Barrett is still in the "consulting my family" stage regarding his entry into the gubernatorial race.
Barrett can't win it. Apart from Milwaukee and Dane counties, Wisconsin votes majority Republican.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, the likely Republican nominee, has a solid reputation as a tax cutter, which will earn him a majority of votes in Milwaukee County. Game over for Barrett.
Michael, northwest Wisconsin is also quite Democratic. The counties where UW System schools are are also usually Democratic leaning.
Barrett is now the only Democrat left standing of the original top-tier candidates
So I guess Obama will give him that same support he gave the guys in Virginia and New Jersey?
When wa sthe last time Wisconson had a Republican Governor?
WV- micak; what the drunken DJ said while looking for his microphone: where da mic ak?
We had Tommy Thompson.
"“Obama won the state big..."
And thus the name Cheeseheads.
Obama's coming to Madison to talk about education? He ought to go to Milwaukee, where the school system needs serious overhaul, but that would highlight the teacher's union complicity in the disastrous status quo. Can't have that, can we?
Meh.
Michael H is correct. This is not a good time to be running as a Democrat. Barret has done little to distinguish himself from Doyle. And Doyle is about as popular as a turd in the punchbowl.
A Milwaukee mayor has never been elected governor.
Dems need to clean up big in Dane and Milwaukee counties in order to win. Walker has won handily three times in his Milw County Exec races. Best Barrett can do in MC is 55 percent and that is not enough cushion.
Outstate WI voters of both parties are put off by Milwaukee politicians....which means Walker as a straight-forward taxcutter will get the benefit of the doubt over tax-hiker Barrett.
The only thing that helps Barrett is that he is not tied to Doyle or the Dem-controlled legislator.
"Michael, northwest Wisconsin is also quite Democratic. The counties where UW System schools are are also usually Democratic leaning."
NW WI is two-thirds Dem because only three people live up there and two of them vote Dem
If Althouse would like to do a public service, she can find people who can try to ask BHO why he supports an anti-American bill. Note: I mean finding someone who can "interrogate" him on his support using the points at that link, not just someone who'll do things tea party style (ranting or asking an open-ended question). I mean someone who's experienced with using a line of questioning to make someone look bad.
If Althouse can do that, she'll help block a very bad bill, she'll help improve the level of debate in the U.S., she'll help undercut the MSM, and she'll help send a far louder message than all the townhall protesters combined.
P.S. I tried to ask BHO a question way back in Feb. 2007. If I had been able to do that, or anyone else had decided to help out, he might not be president today.
"... the stated purpose is a speech on education."
Gee, I wonder if he'll come out against education? Or maybe he'll come out for education.
I await with baited breath to learn how Obama feels about education.
Oh, by the way ... will there be any fundraisers? Or is Obama too busy devising Afghanistan strategy and solving the economic depression to attend partisan fundraisers?
It's no wonder that he hasn't announced where he'll be exactly. Can't give people enough time to organize a protest, now can we?
The last R gov. was McCallum, right before Doyle. Looking forward to seeing Doyle leave.
As for the Obama visit, I wonder if the Dane County airport is big enough for AF1. If not, he will be driving in either from Milwaukee or Rockford. Any way you slice it, it will be a very bad travel day here in Madison especially if they are blocking off 90/39 and/or the Beltline.
Republican Congressman Mark Neumann ran against Democrat Russ Feingold in the 1997 Senate race in Wisconsin.
Feingold defeated Neumann by a slim 2% margin in the election. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Neumann had a 30,000 vote margin outside Milwaukee County, but was overwhelmed by a 68,000 vote margin inside Milwaukee County.
Walker will easily carry Milwaukee County, and will defeat Barrett.
Neumann carried every Wisconsin county except Milwaukee and Madison.
I'm no big fan of Doyle's, but I think he is in part a victim of bad timing -- McCallum left the state in dreadful shape budget-wise. Not as bad as the mess Tony Earl inherited, but close.
IIRC the Neumann/Feingold contest correctly, that was the one where Feingold accepted very little outside money, whereas Neumann took money from anyone and everyone. That was my impression, although press reports (I just googled) say that they each raised similar amounts of money. Perhaps I'm thinking of softer money. Anyway, Neumann struck me as a very angry candidate at the time, and I was very happy that he lost. Hooray for Dane County!
One nit too - I am reading that Obama is coming on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Dem voters chose Doyle over Barrett in 2002. The Dem's best chance was Ron Kind, who isn't running because the GOP very well likely to have won his house seat if he didn't defend it. Kind could very well still lose that seat. Also, Dave Obey, who will still win, has had to fundraise for himself lately and not for other Dems.
The Dems have not developed a bench and its going to kill them in 2010.
Next Monday?! I hope that's enough time for Madison's children to prepare a suitable choral tribute to His Most Inspiring Awesomeness.
whoa! WV glenegro Glee, negro, choral tribute--get it?
I'm no big fan of Doyle's, but I think he is in part a victim of bad timing -- McCallum left the state in dreadful shape budget-wise.
I may accept this argument. First I want to know the rate of growth of Wisconsin government spending over Doyle's tenure. You're saying it's modest, right MM?
The Steve Kagen house seat result will be interesting. If he wins, Republicans will be in for a long night. (I don't think he'll win, but that's hard to say for sure until the candidate he will run against becomes clear).
I wonder why Barbara Lawton dropped out. She says it's not health-related, but very personal.
If Tom Farley is elected Lt. Gov then the Lt. Gov and Madison's Mayor will live across the street from each other.
Government Spending in WI. I think this also includes federal spending? The slope of the line in the Doyle years looks like the slope in the Thompson/McCallum years. Not sure what happened in 2003.
I wonder why Barbara Lawton dropped out.
I hear people hypothesizing that high level democrats (perhaps even the highest level (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)) forced her out to avoid an electoral train wreck.
When is campaign season over?
For Obama? Never.
Will he bring Teleprompter with him or not? What's the chance that Obama will give the speech himself? Anyway, as a Law Professor your duty is to give him a card, or hold up a sign, about the horrible habit of tobacco abuse among impressionable Law Students.
Yes, Doyle was certainly cooler than lukewarm about the candidacy. Odd.
My wish is for Kathleen Falk to resign as Dane Co. Executive and run and be trounced. Won't happen though. She knows she is unelectable for a State-wide office.
I encourage Kathleen Falk to run for statewide office as often as possible.
Government Spending in WI. I think this also includes federal spending? The slope of the line in the Doyle years looks like the slope in the Thompson/McCallum years. Not sure what happened in 2003.
I spent some time on this, but it would take a lot more to sort it out.
[Falk] knows she is unelectable for a State-wide office.
I don't think she's that smart. She's already run for Governor and Attorney General.
Can someone please explain to me what more can be said about education? Since education in this country is clearly a gigantic foothold for leftist ideology and policies, what can President Barely possibly say to encourage better education. Every year it's the same thing over and over again and yet these morons don't realize that they are the cause of the problem not it's solution while 'educators' with PhD besides their names figure out better ways to milk taxpayer money to better experiment on our children in terms of sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and social justice issues instead of sticking to the basic learning groups of actual academics.
This could be the day that Hip Hop curriculum hits the ground running. ACORN Professors with a Phd's in whore house acquisition for the needy could teach evening courses in how to Hip Hop for improving your scoring at college
Education is a strange topic for the president to give up a round of golf in order to hop on AF1 and present Tom Barrett to Dane County liberals as "the next governor of Wisconsin."
Isn't there some other big national issue in the news that the president really wants to happen? Or does he not want to highlight to UW-Madison how young folks are going to get fleeced into paying for baby boomer health insurance.
Speculation surely is fun!
wv: kisses.....seriously, not making that up!
Mr President: Your time would be better spent by first greeting the coffins holding the remains of dead service members at Dover AFB, then second, focusing on winning the war those service people are dying in.
No need for any more campaigning. You won, remember? And the war is now yours. So let's fucking win it, okay?
I live in Polk County, WI. Milwaukee and Madison are like foreign countries. I've said this before, a while back, give Milwaukee and Madison to Illinois, then let's annex the Upper Penninsulsa of MI, into the new Wisconsin and make Green Bay, the capital of New Wisconsin.
No doubt even after all of the last several months of backtracking Althouse will be gaga over seeing Obama "in the flesh". It will reinvigorate her hopey-changy deal.
Milwaukee's a gross large city. No fabulous industries. Just gross.
No fabulous colleges. Sorry Marquette you aint it.
No fabulous gays. Very blue collar and fat and not blue collar in a good way. Blue Collar in a dumb way.
Doyle is a total bore. I guess the best thing you can say about him is he is likely not fucking anyone with that puss.
Feingold is fabulous in an unusual way. He is kind of hot, he is piss poor, Rhodes Scholar and seems really honest.
Herb Kohl is another total bore. The only redeeming quality is he has is he is really rich. Rumor has it he is a fudgie too but we don't want him on our team.
Sensenbrenner is absolutely disgusting and totally unfuckable.
Tammy Baldwin is a bland dyke.
Paul Ryan is totally slimey.
Tommy Thompson another grossey, has a girlfriend and way too many chins.
David Obey total dweeb.
All in all not a great cast of characters.
Sensenbrenner looks like a turnip.
And don't get me started with that Fargo voice. Oyy, so painful.
Northern Wisconsin is totally poor too, not fabulous.
Spooner, Park Falls, Ladysmith, Bloomer-totally depressing places.
Titus, eat shit.
Racine and Kenosha are totally nasty too.
Just gross.
I went to a gay bar in Kenosha once and it was the scariest group of gays I have even seen in my life.
Titus - you should stick to the gay bars in Manhattan. Those gays are fabulous while the ones in flyover country are scary.
And at the Kenosha gay bar there was on of each type of gay.
A leather gay and a muscle gay and a twink gay, black gay, asian gay, latino gay, drag gay, fat lesbians, a plethora of chubby gays and bear gays and they all talked to each other.
I was like don't you all know you should each have your own club not converse with the other gays?
And there were ads for a bowling league. I remember this distinctly-it was called The Betty Davis Bowling League-all I could think about was what it must be like when that crew embarks on a bowling alley in Kenosha Wisconsin-frightening to say the least.
Oh and they have "potlucks" together. I was like WTF?
You got something against diversity, Titus?
No, Titus only approves of fabulous gays. Normal rough-and-tumble red-state gays are too weird and scary for him.
I was totally disgusted but deeply intriqued so I ventured into their den.
I wanted to know what they did, where they were from etc.
They had jobs like working at Chess King in the Racine Mall, Manager of Applebees, Ticket Taker at The Kenosha Playhouse. And then one went to UW-Parkside, he was the one with the most attitude, natch.
The dykes were mechanics-serious, bartenders and really fat. No lipstick lesbians there.
It was weird. Straighties always think the gays are the ones with the dollars but those mos in Kenosha told a different story.
I love shit like that though.
I find it fascinating.
I think we went out to Perkins or Country Kitchen with them after bartime just for more good times.
Oh and I did the muscle guy.
Madison gays aren't much better.
You think it would be different but it is true.
Walk into that one gay bar in Madison and you are walking into a scene from like 1984.
For some reason they all seem to be social workers, the gays in Madison.
I was like bitches is 2009 we are all about corporate america and profits and shit like that.
I hope I don't sound judgmental.
I bet the bowling alley employees have a meeting before the Kenosha gays begin their season of Betty Davis Bowling. Just to prepare them for what they are about to witness.
Is a cop hired to stand guard during the league?
Sensitivity Training perhaps?
I've said this before, a while back, give Milwaukee and Madison to Illinois, then let's annex the Upper Penninsulsa of MI, into the new Wisconsin and make Green Bay, the capital of New Wisconsin..
I remember all that talk when I was growing up in Rhinelander. Silly really, the lower half of the state generates the vast majority of the states revenue that funds the northern half. Last Thanksgiving I was up in Rhinelander on a Friday night out for a beer to see some old friends, and man, there wasn't more than 1000 watts of electricity burning in that town. It's shrunk if anything. Titus would give it the icky face.
Herb Kohl is another total bore. The only redeeming quality is he has is he is really rich. Rumor has it he is a fudgie too but we don't want him on our team.
My Aunt's cousin dated Herb Kohl way back when. I'm thinking in the 70s. I wonder if he had hair then. She doesn't say much about his sex drive.
Are they erecting a temple for the one? Nice large structure with columns. Will the worshipers be out in force with their palms? Will he ride in on an ass- maybe Joe Biden?
Will he chase the greedy business people out of town? Will he bring in his disciples- er, community organizers Will he perform miracles? Stupid human tricks? Maybe he can walk on water.
I'll bet the supporters will be out there selling prayer rugs and other religious articles- all proceeds donated to THE PARTY.
It is hard to top the absurdity of Obama fawning and groveling this month, given he got the Nobel Peace Prize Oct 9th, but Rocco Landesman makes his personal tongue plunge into The One's golden sphincter.....(From Powerline)
Rocco Landesman is President Obama's handpicked chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Last week he gave the keynote address to the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference. Those of us concerned about the politicization of life and art in the Age of Obama will not be consoled by a reading of Landesman's speech. The speech bears examination in its entirety, but Landesman's tribute to Obama is especially worth a look:
"This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists...."
Nobel Laureate, Our Own Caesar.
How precious!
(Wilson, Hoover, Ike, Reagan, and especially Nixon would chortle at this.)
And past them, you have some gifted writers after Lincoln, starting with what is thought to be the greatest leader's autiobiography ever written - US Grants. Garfields classical writings. And in the narrow field of law, Tafts contributions..And unlike Obama, even Bill Clinton supposedly wrote his stuff without major ghostwriter help.
Only Truman, Kennedy, Carter, Reagan (on some books), and Obama have leaned heavily on ghostwriters.
I do find it sad it those northern Wisconsin cities with their populations dwindling.
Young people don't stay anymore. There is very little opportunity.
For the most part they run for the cities. Better paying jobs, other young people, places to go people to see, exotic hogs, etc.
There is a guy who has a dog at the dog park I go to. He is at Harvard Law and is from Rice Lake. He shoed horses in Rusk County one summer. He's kind of hot too.
My husband and I will be going to the restaurant O Ya in Boston.
Named the best new restaurant in the NY Times.
It's really expensive.
So there.
I love the name too O Ya-so fab.
Just because SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT!!!!!
WHERE IS THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!????
KENYAN USURPER!!!!
I wanted to give the thread some good Bircher color. I'm not sure if anyone upthread took the opportunity to throw in any good red meat. So far, this whole thread has been weak sauce, like a bad Downfall parody where Hitler complains yet AGAIN about Ronaldo being released from United.
Cedarford, you really need to butch up. The POTUS is coming to Madison, and he's only coming because he realizes that Ann is slowly, slowly drifting out of his hypnotic gaze.
Titus' thoughts on the rural gay bar reminded me of a visit back in 1980 to a tiny gay bar in rural Mississippi. I am for the most part a city girl, and had been only to French Quarter bars back then. I don't recall how I ended up going with some friends, but after a long drive down a tiny road, we ended up at a little cinderblock box with black windows.
Inside were maybe 15 people, and much like Titus describes - basically a few of each type. A drag queen leaning on the bar, a butch dyke at the pool table, a couple of young guys in gimme caps. I remember thinking I really wanted to know where the exits were, in case a truckload of rednecks might show up.
Years later I worked in Jackson, and that was big city in comparison. However, even in the gay men's bar, hunting and fishing trophies decorated the walls. One nice touch: a large faux diamond earring in the ear of a mounted buck would light up when the phone rang.
Section9 - "Butch up???"
If I lived there I would await Caesar.
Like Althouse, I voted for Obama based on how bad McCain was in comparison. With McCain, you knew you were fucked with Open Borders, Cap 'n Trade, a Major War with Iran, a stimulus plan where McCain's solution was to give any homeowner who bought "too much house" the cash balance needed to bring them to "acceptable mortgage levels".
And as for healthcare, whatever "bipartisan deal" he could cook up behind closed doors with his co-weasels Lindsay Graham and Lieberman.
Better Obama and making Dems own what they do than McCain enabling them and giving them a patina of "bipartisan respectability" - as he has treacherously done for decades.
Obama of course had the potential to govern as a centrist...but abdicated leadership to Reid and Pelosi and Waxman. So people are disappointed in him. But Obama was a toss of the dice, while McCain was guaranteed snake eyes.
A rural gay bar in Mississippi scares me to death.
Hell, Mississippi scares me to death.
And gays in Miss I found incredibly troublling I could not imagine.
I hate the south because they hate me.
Sorry I am a northern girl.
When I think of the south and gays in the south I only hope they aren't being dragged by a chain to their death.
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