June 3, 2012

"Activists converge on Wisconsin for historic recall vote."

Says Reuters (linked prominently at Drudge):
Political activists converged on Wisconsin on Sunday to join get-out-the-vote efforts two days before a historic recall election for Republican Governor Scott Walker that is seen as a test for November's presidential race.
But as I just wrote in the previous post, I was all over downtown Madison today, and there was NO political activity at all.

But up in Brown County, Wisconsin, Scott Walker and Tom Barrett attended the same event, Brown County Dairy Breakfast, where there was a crowd of 8,000+ people to glad-hand.
Barrett arrived while Walker was still on the premises, and Walker lingered a few yards away talking to attendees while Barrett got in position to serve Dairy Breakfast food, a ritual of Wisconsin politics. The candidates were both on the scene for about 20 minutes.

Barrett was greeted warmly by some of the breakfast-goers — at least one man told him Barrett he was voting for him, prompting Barrett to joke, "Give him a lot of really good food" — but others reacted differently, telling Barrett they were voting for Walker and not shaking his hand when he extended it.

Asked if he got this kind of reaction when he ran against Walker in 2010, Barrett said, "No no, this is a newer occurrence."
Yes, because this recall is an unwelcome intrusion on the people of the state, and we have reason to be angry about it.  Those who pushed for the recall felt angry, after losing the regular election, and this anger took them as far as it did, but it set up a newer occurrence, which was to outrage the people who expected to be left alone until the next regular election.

Democratic Party leaders — including President Obama — sat back and allowed the fury of the protesters to build and channel into a recall. I presume they hoped the grassroot passion would benefit them. But they should have seen where this would go, and they should have cautioned against it. Every creditable candidate — including Tom Barrett — should have said they would not run and no one should sign the recall petition. But the folly was allowed to go on, and now Scott Walker has raked in the millions, become a national "rock star," and stands ready to collect a new mandate.

And now, in the end, the Democratic Party, with its lackluster candidate Tom Barrett, who already lost to Scott Walker in 2010, looks lame and defeated. The more left-wing folk who drove the protests last year have to be irritated that all their intense energy and hard work got co-opted by the Party, which didn't really have any idea what to do with it, but just wanted to use it, because it was there to be used.

49 comments:

Kirby Olson said...

How many states have this recall stuff. I can't recall anyone's having addressed whether this can just happen constantly. Why don't we just have voting and do-overs continually. It would sure help news sales. If Walker wins again, can't they just start the process right away again? With more faked signatures? And get Bill and Hillary to go around and around and around from state to city to trailer park to fairground. Keeps everything all stirred up. There ought to be a kind of double or nothing for people who challenge and don't win, like you have to be dropped from a helicopter into a Dixie cup of Gatorade.

Michael K said...

California recalled Gray Davis and gave us Arnold. That certainly worked out well. About like everything else in California except the weather.

edutcher said...

As I said in the last post, I think it's just gotten old.

The Demos know they're going to lose and everyone wants to (dare I say?) move on.

PS Nice day there?

eelpout said...

Barrett killed a two year baby.

Gooooooo Team!

And hey rural rubes I envision out there, I'm not just picking on Milwaukee! But, eh, they're black, and you're not. Just sayin!

Ignorance is Bliss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

...I was all over downtown Madison today, and there was NO political activity at all.

It was quiet in Madison today. Too quiet...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Bailey said...

Barrett killed a two year baby.

He did? I didn't know that. Guess I won't vote for him then.

Thanks for the info.

Meade said...

Bailey said...
"Barrett killed a two year baby.

Gooooooo Team!

And hey rural rubes I envision out there, I'm not just picking on Milwaukee! But, eh, they're black, and you're not. Just saying!"

Is something bothering you, Bailey? If you're trying for a laugh, you failed. If you want to be take seriously, I suggest you behave with seriousness.

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

...while Barrett got in position to serve Dairy Breakfast food, a ritual of Wisconsin politics...

...at least one man told him Barrett he was voting for him, prompting Barrett to joke, "Give him a lot of really good food"...


An apt metaphor for why Barrett will likely lose.

Palladian said...

Oh no, someone's politicized the hawks with a pro-Scott Walker sign.

I wish politics could keep its perverted, creeping, molesting fingers out of something for once.

eelpout said...

Tom Barrett is not telling the truth about crimes. In MILWAUKEE dudes! Milwaukee. Ahem, one more time, Milwaukee. *WINK* The governor sez so all the time! I Stand With Scott Walker.

Asheville Argonaut said...

"which didn't really have any idea what to do with it, but just wanted to use it, because it was there to be used."

Great description for a lot of government activities.

Palladian said...

LOL, now some asshole in an ugly spandex bike outfit has put the sign on the ground and is stomping on it.

Palladian said...

I wish the eyasses would have shit on both the people who put the sign there and the people who took it away.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

LOL, now some asshole in an ugly spandex bike outfit has put the sign on the ground and is stomping on it.

That's surprising. I thought Meade was pro-Walker.

eelpout said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
eelpout said...

And rural Wisconsin, that NRA TV ad correctly shows us that just when you have your scope on that buck of a lifetime, just when you're about to enter hero status pulling that trigger of freedom, Tom Barrett will snap his fingers and make that 30-30 disappear right out of your arms!

And, end up where? Probably in Milwaukee! Because if you outlaw guns, only outlaws....well you know. TRUTH. I Stand With Walker.

PATRIOT

Palladian said...

Bailey what was wrong, the first version of your latest comment wasn't stupid and unfunny enough?

Beta Rube said...

Oh Lord, is Bailey a preview of the bitterness and idiocy those of us who live here will have to deal with for years to come?

Walker won on racist ads and hiding his felonious conduct?

Reality based community? Really?

Seven Machos said...

Bailey shows us the way. After the gutting of the public-sector unions, making unions get dues without the power of law, and cutting lavish pensions -- after all that, and the protests over all that, and the legislators fleeing the state over all that, Walker will only win because of racism (because any time you mention Milwaukee, it's racism) and gun rights.

What a silly, unserious person. Your side is going to lose because people like what Walker did and the Republicans did, dude. They like the gutting of the public-sector unions. That's the whole story.

Deal with it, like an adult.

hombre said...

The question to be answered shortly: Are Wisconsin voters the new Greeks?

DCS said...

It was a dog and pony show orchestrated by a combination of over the top labor union officials and the MSM. Reminds me of the hysteria that gripped democrats after the 2000 election. They were so stunned Bush won they were willing to destroy the country in order to overturn the election results, They failed, but then went on to disrupt governance for 8 years until a rank amateur named Obama used his charm to get elected. We are all paying the piper for that tune.

kcom said...

"Tom Barrett is not telling the truth about crimes. In MILWAUKEE dudes! Milwaukee. Ahem, one more time, Milwaukee. *WINK* The governor sez so all the time! I Stand With Scott Walker."

Just think about what you're saying, Bailey (yeah, I know it's hard). You're basically saying because Milwaukee has black people in it it can't be criticized, despite the facts. Take a look at Detroit and see how far that got them. After years of sweeping the city's problems under the rug, because of deference to incompetent (and corrupt) black leadership, it's a shell of its former self. Wouldn't it have been better to substitute competent leadership for the incompetents? Competent black leadership or competent white leadership would both have been an improvement. But instead, it's been turned into a wasteland due to voting for the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Voting based on skin color, and protecting incompetence based on skin color, and especially protecting corruption based on skin color, is a recipe for failure.

alan markus said...

Gee, Bailey, for all your trolling about racism, you are ignoring that Mayor Tom Barrett unseated Miwaukee's first black Mayor, Marvin Pratt. Marvin Pratt was appointed as interim Mayor. Of course, all those racists in the City of Milwaukee weren't going to stand for having a black man be Mayor, so Tom Barrett stepped into the race (he had been Congressman, but he retired so he could save Milwaukee from the black scourge).

Milwaukee voters better give some thought to the implications of having Barrett become Governor - they would be risking that the Mayor position could be taken up by a black man! Superhero Tom Barrett saved their bacon once, who knows if there is another white man as awesome as he is!.

Bailey, a vote for Barrett is a vote for a racist. Chew on that for awhile.

I don't know, Bailey, are you like 19 years old or something?

Patrick said...

I'm with Palladian. Leave the politics out of the Hawks. Isn't there even one space where it can be left alone? I'm camping near Madison next weekend, and I really hope all of this winds down.

By the way, when I camp, it means rain in the area, so batten the hatches.

traditionalguy said...

Just be thankful the Bullet Train from Chicago is not bringing activists in at high speed.

Wisconsin is going to wake up tWednesday saying, "Is that all there is?"

HeckYesIVote said...

Please advise. A couple of right-wingers from the very blue state of NY, with ties to WI, want to drive over tomorrow to be in WI on the night of the count. They want to know where is the best place to be in a bar setting, to experience the glow and conservative comraderie. Want to be in Neenah sometime Wed p.m.

Advice?

pauldar said...

Wow! Walker came home! Did he have a slide show of his travels?

Betting no one gives a cow-pie.
They/we are so use to not seeing pictures of Obama's, what? 2 zillion golf trips while the country is going up in flames. But hey, that is of course just a guess

eelpout said...

Gee, Bailey, for all your trolling about racism, you are ignoring that Mayor Tom Barrett unseated Miwaukee's first black Mayor, Marvin Pratt

One is running cynical racial dogwhistle ads, the other one beat a black person in an election. See! All even! One excuses the other. They both do it!

Wally Kalbacken said...

Let's rock!

- Al Bundy

Beta Rube said...

The story of under reporting Milwaukee crime stats broke on the front page of The Milwaukee Journal.

The Walker campaign used the story (legitimately) to suggest the crime numbers Barrett was touting were fudged. Had the numbers not been under reported to the FBI by the MPD, there would be no story. Where is the racism here?

They screwed up and they got caught. That's it.

HeckYesIVote said...

And they must, in the end, feel used.

But I am still asking. Where can one can be, outside the home, to sit and bask in the joy of this being over, on Tuesday night? A couple of out-of-state conservative Republicans want to know.

Anonymous said...

We don't need any outsiders, stay home. Watch Fox news.

Palladian said...

Wow, what a vibrant tourism industry you must have there, Allie.

Calypso Facto said...

Barrett beats black people! I read it first here, from Bailey.

Anonymous said...

Palladian, tourists are welcome at any other time. We have a thriving tourist industry, our state is gorgeous.

MadisonMan said...

I love going to the farm breakfasts. But if you're not there before 7:30, in Dane Co at least, too many people are there with kids that don't want to be there.

@Patrick, we need rain, so thanks!

Steve Austin said...

Ed Schultz and Jesse Jackson are in Milwaukee tonight. They are "preaching" at a Church on the northwest side of Milwaukee that pastored by the brother of MKE common council president Willie Hines.

The reports were they had a crowd of about 100.

Chuck66 said...

Good writing, AA.

For comparison, imagine what would have happened if the Republicans would have recalled/impeached Obama in late 2009/early 2010. It would have been a disaster for the Republicans. instead they worked hard on getting good candidates and really cleaned house in November 2010.

alan markus said...

We have a thriving tourist industry

We also have a thriving political theater of the absurd. Why not make that part of the tourist industry?

KCFleming said...

I hope the real voters outnumber the bullshit voters on Tuesday.

If anyone sees Franken's car near a polling station, watch his every move.

section9 said...

Allie Oop wrote, ironically,

We don't need any outsiders, stay home. Watch Fox news.

Right, that's what you've been telling all the goons from the SEIU and AFSCME who've come into your state to try and unseat Walker and Kleefisch, right?

Meade said...

MadisonMan said...
@Patrick, we need rain, so thanks!

It just started rain now in our neighborhood. Patrick, who ARE you?

Patrick said...

Meade, MadisonMan, My wife and I have been camping together for coming up on 14 years. Usually 3 times a year. Every single time, and I kid you not, every single time we have gotten some rain. Sometimes tons, a few times only some night time sprinkles, but it has rained (snowed once in Custer STate Park) it has rained.

My kids tend to like it. They had a great laugh last year when I was making them s'mores in a mighty downpour at Lake Wissota State Park. Good times. Especially with a good tent.

Meade said...

Well don't stop dancing, Mr. Patrick or Mr. Rainmaker or whoever you really are. It's still coming down!

Curious George said...

"AllieOop said...
Palladian, tourists are welcome at any other time. We have a thriving tourist industry, our state is gorgeous." Ain't thriving lately.

Meade said...

General Secretary AllieOop, tear down this tourist wall!

Rocketeer said...

One is running cynical racial dogwhistle ads, the other one beat a black person in an election.

We're not hearing the whistle.

Why do you think you're hearing the whistle, but not the rest of us?