Walker Wins
Pro-life Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has won the recall election decisively. His victory is a clear sign of how the political winds are blowing in Wisconsin and strongly indicates that Wisconsin may well end up in the Republican column in the presidential election this year, which is devastating for Obama. One little statistic that should send shivers down the spine of Democrat strategists this evening. When Walker won in 2010 he won the Catholic vote by two points. Exit polls show him winning the Catholic vote by ten points tonight. More and more Catholics are realizing that they have no home in the modern Democrat party. When a conservative Republican like Walker can win in a traditionally Blue state like Wisconsin, largely due to the Catholic vote, the political landscape is changing rapidly.
Update I: A good piece, here, by Ross Douthat in the New York Times on the failure of the recall. As is always the case for a Ross Douthat column in the New York Times, most of the comments are unintentionally hilarious as well as being clueless and delusional.
Update II: I just had to run the below video:
The figure cited by the “Democracy is dead” hysteric in regard to campaign spending is from a particularly dishonest Mother Jones piece which looked only at the funds raised by the campaigns and not outside advocacy groups which included almost all the Union money spent to unseat Walker. Walker probably had a spending advantage when that is factored in, but it was less than two to one. Additionally, there is no price tag for the Union “volunteers” who went door to door to get out the vote. If the Left wants to delude themselves that money is why they were beat in Wisconsin, be my guest.
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Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ!
This is great news. (I, somehow, know you would post this
)
Have been following this for a few days, and have been waiting for the news item to come up on Fox – Hannity.
The best part is Obama’s dumbfounded look in the video’s preview image.
THANK GOD!!
I am beginning to ponder that maybe Obama’s election in 2008 was an aberration. A last gasp of liberalism as we know it. Yeah, we’ll have other liberal candidates winning the White House, but none do the depth and degree of this president and his European-Socialism idealism.
I pray and hope that we’ll have a flowering of Christianity in this country due in part to the moral depravity and emptiness of President Obama.
I hope he doesn’t devolve into a modern day Nero if he sees the writing on the wall.
What a day!
Congratulations to Gov. Walker, to Queen Elizabeth on her Jubilee, and to NASA for showing the transition of Venus from evening star to morning star.
WHOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!
Tito-
I’m not as hopeful as you; I’m just hoping a lot of folks went: “HOLY CROW! This ain’t what I thought!” and swing back the opposite way.
It’s a wonderful win for those who want to have less government spending and more fiscal sanity. Congratulations to Governor Walker and the people of Wisconsin. More work to be done before November.
According to CNN he narrowly retained office. I didn’t know 60/40 was a squeaker
Heh, I just noticed that as well Dave. Even better was Lawrence O’Donnell claiming that the big winner tonight was President Obama.
The big spin now is that Walker only won this because of the money. Evidently now Democrats are against big spending on elections. I hope Barack Obama is apprised of this fact. But even if Walker outspent Barrett, so what? Wasn’t the idea that people in WI were so enraged that they had no choice but to oust Walker. Do you mean to tell me that it only took a bunch of 30 second tv ads to convince voters that they weren’t as upset as they were told they were?
Make no mistake, this is a very scary sign for the Democrats. Sure all the polling leading up to tonight had Walker winning, but by a much smaller amount. The actual results would seem to indicate that voters are turning away from the Democrats in ways that polls are not accurately reflecting, suggesting that polls about November might be even less rosy for the Dems than people think.
There is hope…….I was starting to wonder.!!! God bless Gov. Walker.
Good.
November will be 10 times harder and 100 times more vital.
Don’t get cocky.
Yeehaw!
Yeah, Democratic strategists should be worried. If they go down 60/40 trying to recall a union-busting GOP governor in Wisconsin on all places, they have got trouble come November.
Either, as Paul says, this indicates that people are turning away from the Dems more than polls would indicate, or else it underlines how unmotivated the Democratic base is these days. If unions can’t get out the vote in their own recall election, will they be able to create an Obama wave again in the general?
There is one small consolation prize for Dems: in addition to Gov. Walker, four GOP legislators were also up for recall and one of them was defeated, which turns the state Senate back to Dem control. However, the legislature isn’t scheduled to meet again until after the November election so this “victory” isn’t likely to make much of an impact. (A commenter on another political blog compared it to a last-place team winning its last game of the season and trumpeting that as “proof” of a comeback.)
An amen to that! But optimism, for me, is a long way off.
Very happy with the outcome.
I’m never one for triumphalism.
However, I am thrilled to see the communist teacher’s unions get a richly deserved, well-placed bloody nose.
As a Wisconsinite, I’m proud of my RED state and the taxpayers sticking it to the union thugs once again — this time by a wider margin. On the downside, the bill for this farce came to $63 million. As a reporter, I’ve interviewed Walker a couple of times when he campaigned and found him honest and direct, but his offer to reach across the aisle is disconcerting. There can be no compromise with baby killing, homosexual-promoting, tax-and-spend neanderthals. They’re total losers; screw ‘em.
Don, I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in “exit polls,” which are a) a very small sampling and b) not accurate given people’s penchant to lie about their vote for various reasons.
Early on last night, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel web site, CNN, Fox, etc. all had the race “neck-and-neck” despite the fact that Walker was up 61-39 and widening his lead. The outcome was never in doubt even though Madison/Milwaukee results came in late to close the gap somewhat. This was an old-fashioned political whuppin’.
There is one small consolation prize for Dems: in addition to Gov. Walker, four GOP legislators were also up for recall and one of them was defeated, which turns the state Senate back to Dem control.
They are actually still fussing over the results of one state senate race. The preliminary margin is 800 votes out of 72,000 cast.
http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/as-republicans-see-victory-wanggaard-in-razor-thin-lead-over/article_90a8c3ae-af76-11e1-ba46-0019bb2963f4.html?comment_form=true
The legislature does not convene until another round of state senate contests in November.
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According to CNN he narrowly retained office. I didn’t know 60/40 was a squeaker
The earliest results had that margin. The last ballots counted were in Milwaukee, so the completed tally was a 7-point margin. (Still outside the conventional bounds of ‘narrow’).
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Surprised we haven’t heard from MZ
Don, I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in “exit polls,” which are a) a very small sampling and b) not accurate given people’s penchant to lie about their vote for various reasons.
The sample sizes are adequate, but these polls do appear in the last decade to be a good deal less reliable than they were prior to that, for reasons not well explained.
The Democrat Party left us, we did not leave it. If it is the Democrats vs saving our eternal souls, they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. Coming from a long line of card carrying union dems, (meat packers, John Deere,) they have lost nearly all of this big Catholic extended family. When my father-in-law was in the Wisc State legislature, he fought so hard against the far left that was infiltrating them, he lost and so did the country. It took a lot, and it hurt a lot to walk away from what was a huge part of this families life. We have never looked back. The pubs aren’t perfect but at least there is a glimmer of hope. Praise The Lord for last nights results!
Yeehaw!
That is the most emotional I have ever witnessed Darwin, evah!
Surprised we haven’t heard from MZ
Ain´t much to really say. The idea that someone elected 18 months ago was somehow easily defeated was a narrative I didn´t subscribe to, although a lot of activists did. When the signatures were being gathered, I placed the odds of recall at 40%. The reason for the loss was gross under performance (or over performance by Walker) in northeastern Wisconsin. Barrett lost 60/40 in Brown Country (Green Bay); winning democrats carry that county. My speculation is that the Milwaukee crime statistics ad was really effective out-state. But even that had more to do with margin than simple outcome. Simple outcome was explained by Walker polling at or above 48% since about January. Where things will get interesting is the next biennial budget. Walker likely won´t be able to do a cram down again or at least not to the degree he did this time. In particular, the road builders are likely going to have to take a hit which will alienate one of his constituencies. Despite the rhetoric, this budget was easy choices like urban funding, cramming down salaries of democratic constituencies, and postponing health care eligibility for the marginally poor.
As far as Obama goes, the polling has been pretty clear for several months that there is a significant cohort of pro Walker and pro Obama voters. I don´t understand how one could accommodate that dissidence, but some folks have managed. I´m personally surprised at the strength of Obama´s numbers. As for the Catholic vote, there were no discernible Catholic concerns. Without looking at the numbers, I would guess that Catholics voted a little less for Walker than white people generally.
Is Walker first US governor to survive a recall election?
For MZ, enjoy:
Yep, he is.