Wisconsin governor goes bonkers

Scuzz · 2012-06-05T16:04:27.000Z

madkevin:

So you cared enough to write the question in the first place, but you DON’T care enough to find out the answer? And you didn’t care that you were wasting time when you wrote the question, but you don’t want to “waste time” finding out the answer to a question you didn’t have to write and could have easily just answered yourself?

Is English your second language?

Your wasting your time though, aren’t you. But then you are used to that.

madkevin · 2012-06-05T16:06:18.000Z

Scuzz:

Your wasting your time though, aren’t you.

By responding to you? You got me there. That’s inevitably a complete waste of time, and this one is no exception.

Scuzz · 2012-06-05T16:08:48.000Z

Prior to California’s 2003 gubernatorial recall election, the only successful recall of a governor to date took place in North Dakota in 1921, when voters removed from office not only Governor Lynn J. Frazier, but also the attorney general and the commissioner of agriculture.

Apparently those are the only successful attempts. Interesting, California has tried 31 times and only succeeded once.

madkevin · 2012-06-05T16:12:34.000Z

You should ask your boss for a raise because you learned computers.

RDansky · 2012-06-05T16:13:41.000Z

Aaaand, getting back to the topic, Madison is reporting 119% voter turnout.

What this means is that they’ve had so many new voters register today that the final total is a fifth again as large as the number of registered voters before voting started, but I have no doubt that someone’s going to seize on that number and shout “ZOMG FRAUD!”

Scuzz · 2012-06-05T16:13:52.000Z

madkevin:

You should ask your boss for a raise because you learned computers.

What did I learn them?

Strollen · 2012-06-05T16:18:16.000Z

Kolonial:

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but the NSCL reports there have been far more than three gubernatorial recalls:

I think you are counting recalls where they tried to gather signature but failed to get enough valid ones to qualify for the ballot.

The Wikiarticle shows several unsuccessful attempts, but only 3 where the issue went before the voters.

Strollen · 2012-06-05T16:31:39.000Z

Malathor:

Let no one say that Obama wasn’t willing to stick his neck out on behalf of those public sector unions. He may not have been willing to step foot in the state, but he did tweet his support for Barrett today!

Oh wait, that’s actually kind of lame. You think maybe Obama actually recognizes that having public sector unions bargain their contracts with the very politicians that they help to elect is exactly the kind of corrupt confluence between government and moneyed/special interests that liberals are always railing about? Naaaah.

Paul Beluga was really critical of Obama’s tweet. Pointing out that Barrett supported Sen. Obama early on over Sen. Clinton for President, so simply out of loyalty he should have done more.

Another profile of (political) courage from the President.

If I was a Syrian dissident hoping for the US President to show leadership by supporting the underdog well…

rhinohelix · 2012-06-05T17:09:21.000Z

Strollen:

Paul Beluga was really critical of Obama’s tweet. Pointing out that Barrett supported Sen. Obama early on over Sen. Clinton for President, so simply out of loyalty he should have done more.

Another profile of (political) courage from the President.

If I was a Syrian dissident hoping for the US President to show leadership by supporting the underdog well…

Ask the people in Iran how that turned out.

It may not be the “right” thing to do but the costs at this point in the election cycle were just too high for Obama, though, to think that he would do anything else. The stakes have been bet up so much in Wisconsin that if Barrett didn’t pull it out, the collateral damage to Obama’s own campaign would be severe. Better to not unseat the gov. of Wisconsin than lose the Presidency, I am sure that line of thinking goes.

Jason_McCullough · 2012-06-05T17:32:30.000Z

RDansky:

Aaaand, getting back to the topic, Madison is reporting 119% voter turnout.

What this means is that they’ve had so many new voters register today that the final total is a fifth again as large as the number of registered voters before voting started, but I have no doubt that someone’s going to seize on that number and shout “ZOMG FRAUD!”

They say that every election now, so oh well.

rhinohelix:

Ask the people in Iran how that turned out.

Yes, there’s certainly a lot in common with Iran!

Strollen · 2012-06-05T17:50:27.000Z

rhinohelix:

It may not be the “right” thing to do but the costs at this point in the election cycle were just too high for Obama, though, to think that he would do anything else. The stakes have been bet up so much in Wisconsin that if Barrett didn’t pull it out, the collateral damage to Obama’s own campaign would be severe. Better to not unseat the gov. of Wisconsin than lose the Presidency, I am sure that line of thinking goes.

I am a bit confused how you can be “change agent” if you only take positions that are popular, and not get involved in political fights where you risk collateral damage.

As Beluga said WI is very unlikely to vote Republican last time was during Reagan’s landslide in 1984. It would seem to me it would help rally the base. If Walker wins by a narrow margin, I’d be pretty pissed if I was a Democrat activist.

Dejin · 2012-06-05T17:55:16.000Z

Exit polls from Wisconsin on Obama vs. Romney: voters prefer Obama 51 to 45:

MSNBC:

If incumbent Gov. Scott Walker ® staves off the challenge from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) and keeps his job, the Obama-Romney head-to-head numbers will throw cold water on analyses claiming the recall is a harbinger for this fall’s presidential election.

Than there’s this bizarro tidbit from Nate Silver:

Still, in the past 10 presidential elections as a whole, the presidential candidate has done a point or two better when the governor of the state is of the opposite party.

I can’t imagine that’s true of most states.

John_Many_Jars · 2012-06-05T18:03:01.000Z

I haven’t heard anything from Romney that aligns him with this Vitalis-haired goat milker past the name of his party.

awdougherty · 2012-06-05T18:52:06.000Z

MSNBC calling it for Walker

Brettmcd · 2012-06-05T18:55:25.000Z

awdougherty:

MSNBC calling it for Walker

Good, the voters got it right if MSNBC is correct.

Strollen · 2012-06-05T19:13:30.000Z

59 41 for Walker that is a landslide. President Romney is the 2nd happiest guy tonight.

Alstein · 2012-06-05T19:21:11.000Z

How can someone vote for Obama and Walker? I don’t get it.

Unless they really like federal gov’t spending and hate state gov’t spending (something I can see, but I think is a rare case), I just don’t get it.

Jason_McCullough · 2012-06-05T19:47:54.000Z

Out of cycle elections rarely predict anything.

Brad_Wardell · 2012-06-05T19:53:21.000Z

Jason McCullough:

Out of cycle elections rarely predict anything.

Indeed. Very very different voting demographics.

Jason_Levine · 2012-06-05T19:55:58.000Z

charmtrap:

Maybe. There’s four Republican state senators up for recall as well tonight. If any of them fall, Democrats take over the majority which will make Walker’s agenda quite a bit harder to push through, I’d imagine.

As of 10 pm central it looks like the Republicans are winning all those races too. This is shaping up as simply an awful night for the Democrats.