June 06, 2012

NYC Letter: Got That Wrong -- Tom Barrett

Day 1,229 of CHOPE
D-minus 227 Days

Special November Preview Edition

BARRETT PREDICTS RECALL WIN
OVER WISCONSIN GOVERNOR

June 3, 2012 (TWT) - His gubernatorial campaign may be trailing incumbent Gov. Scott Walker in the latest polls, but Wisconsin Democrat Tom Barrett said Sunday he has the momentum going into Tuesday’s bitterly contested recall election. Mr. Barrett on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday:
I’m going to win it.

The latest survey on the race, Wednesday’s Marquette University poll, has Mr. Walker leading the challenger by 7 points, 52 percent to 45 percent.

Mr. Barrett has already lost once to Mr. Walker in the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. Will a second run be the charm?

Please note, no Democrat has ever lost an election before the ballots were counted.

WISCONSIN LABOR FIGHT
STARTED UGLY, ENDED UGLY
By Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent

June 4, 2012 (WaEx) - For some so-called progressives in Wisconsin, the threat posed by Gov. Scott Walker's policy limiting the collective-bargaining powers of some public employees has justified almost any response.

  • Democratic lawmakers fled the state rather than allow a vote on Walker's proposal.
  • Some teachers and other public employees abandoned their jobs to protest in the streets.
  • Some doctors violated ethics standards by issuing medical excuses for protesting teachers who walked out on students.
  • Unions threatened boycotts against businesses that declined to publicly side with organized labor.
  • AFL-CIO officials equated the cause of comfortable and well-paid unionized employees with the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and striking Memphis garbage collectors.
  • Anti-Walker forces set off an astonishing controversy amid a state Supreme Court election when they alleged that one justice had physically attacked another.
  • Unions successfully pushed for recall elections against several Republican lawmakers, resulting in two losing their seats.
  • And finally, the intense, lasting anger on the union side led to a recall election for Walker himself. And in the final hours before that vote, anti-Walker activists have spread ugly and baseless rumors that Walker is about to be indicted and -- in perhaps the lowest and most ridiculous point of the entire spectacle -- that Walker fathered an illegitimate child in college. The indictment rumor was the work of the lefty television network Current, relying on what appears to be guesswork and supposition. Walker called it "100 percent wrong." But the report shot through a liberal blogosphere desperate for anything to use against Walker.

... "This is another attempt to find an issue that will distract voters from Walker's record," says Rep. Jim Steineke, a conservative Republican lawmaker who represents Wisconsin's 5th Assembly District. "They keep trying to shift the message. First, it was about collective bargaining. Then it was about jobs. Then it was about the 'war on women.' They've been desperately trying to find a message that resonates with voters, and they haven't found it."

... Despite much talk about the polls "tightening" in the past few days, Walker has held a consistent, if narrow, lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett. Perhaps even more discouraging for organized labor are polls showing that voters not only support Walker -- they support the heart of Walker's reforms.

Requiring unionized public employees to pay more for their pensions and health coverage? Seventy-five percent public support, according to a new Marquette Law School poll. Limiting collective bargaining for most public employees? Fifty-five percent support. And when the Marquette pollsters asked whether Wisconsin was better off or worse off as a result of Walker's changes, voters said better off, 54 percent to 42 percent.

Looks like Mr. Barrett could use a little help.

SHAME ON OBAMA FOR ABANDONING
WISCONSIN DURING THE RECALL

June 4, 2012 (The Progressive) - It was bad enough that Obama or Joe Biden never showed up during the historic protests in February and March of last year. But it is unforgivable that they've failed to show up during the last weeks of this crucial recall campaign.

It's not that they were too busy.

On Friday, Obama was just a half-hour away, giving a speech and then attending a fundraiser in Minneapolis. But he acts like he doesn't know where Wisconsin even is, or why it matters.

... Obama and his team don't want to risk anything for Tom Barrett. Well, they risked a lot by not risking anything.

They've alienated their base in Wisconsin. People here are furious at the White House, and that won't help Obama come November.

Quick! Call in the second bench. Bill Clinton obligingly provides the big event.

FEWER THAN 1,000 PEOPLE SHOW UP
FOR BILL CLINTON-TOM BARRETT
RALLY IN MILWAUKEE

MILWAUKEE June 2, 2012 (TWS) - Just four days out from the Wisconsin's historic gubernatorial recall election, former president Bill Clinton and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett could only draw a small crowd to a rally Friday on Barrett's home turf.

As the Associated Press notes, the crowd numbered only in the "hundreds," a sign of the enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans that has appeared in some polls. Overcast weather and the short notice of the event (it was announced just yesterday) may have depressed turnout. But a sitting mayor of a Democratic city and a popular former Democratic president still should have been able to draw more than hundreds of people on Friday if Barrett supporters were fired up and ready to go. Congressman Paul Ryan has been known to draw hundreds of people to some of his townhall meetings in the Milwaukee exurbs.

... After being introduced by Barrett, Clinton spoke in vague generalities of the need for "creative cooperation" and "shared sacrifice." Clinton said Barrett showed he could balance the budget in Milwaukee through "shared sacrifice" without "breaking the unions." (In fact, the Milwaukee unions wouldn't budge during negotiations last year, and Barrett had to wait for Walker's collective bargaining reforms to take effect in order to exact millions of dollars of concessions from the unions.)

OK, better send in the first bench.

Wow! Super thanks, Barry! A Tweet! That ought to clinch it! Would've been nice, though, if you had physically stood by Tom. [Pause.] You see where this is going. But before we go there, let's check in with progressive union shill, Ed Schultz.

Oh, Ed, you sorry old fish, gloating about a win that -- enough with the tease! Enough table-setting!

DEMOCRATIC MILWAUKEE MAYOR TOM BARRETT
CONCEDES TO WALKER IN WISCONSIN RECALL
MADISON June 5, 2012 (WaPo/AP)

Here's tight. So tight NBC calls it for Walker as soon as the the polls close. So tight Fox follows NBC's call two minutes later. So tight it takes CNN a full three minutes after the voting to call it for Walker. So tight that Mr. Barrett keeps the flame alive less than three hours after the polls close before conceding. So tight, that with 96.7% of the vote counted Mr. Barrett trails by 7.6%.

Quote of the night:

And to end our Wisconsin recall travelogue, a river in Egypt:

Ah-um, Dave, your guy lost. He must be watching the returns on Al "Green Fatty" Gore's Current TV.

If you still want more, Jay Cost at TWS explains the importance behind the recall outcome for the Democrats.

CHOPE.

Democrat Criswell Central.

Posted by Damian at June 6, 2012 01:00 AM
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