Any thoughts on the Wisconsin recall election?

[Conan The Librarian]

Mine are:
 
1) The reporting on NPR has been bad. They reported that Walker got over 10 times the donations for the campaign and most of it was from out of state. That doesn't mention the money put into this by unions not even related to this public employee issue, like AFL/CIO. There was a lot of money put into this by unions from all over the country, but it is not even being mentioned. Also there were the rent-a-protesters that were bused in for months, the people from other states that drove around with "recall walker" messages on their cars, and a very active public relations campaign. All those things cost money, and it was obviously not a grass roots effort that added enough money to make that possible.
 
2) The recall petition was filed within days of Walker taking office.
 
3) Walker did not deceive anyone and did not commit any crimes or even improprieties. In fact, he's the rare polititician that actually did what he said he would do during the campaign.
 
4) The economic recovery in Wisconsin and a return to solvency for the state speak for themselves. Walker's policies have worked.
 
5) The election wasn't even close. 7% difference is a landslide by some people's definition of a landslide.
 
6) This has a very clarifying effect on the issue in Wisconsin, and will probably end up hurting the unions in the long run more than if they had not tried this political recall stunt.
 
7) Depending on what union you're reading about, from 1/3 to half of public union members have canceled their memberships. If that's not an indicator of dissatisfaction, I don't know what is.
 
The teachers aren't at fault here. They simply hired into a system with a set of known benefits, and they chose based on rational incentives to do so. What's going to become of the long-time teachers and others? Are their retirement benefits in jeopardy now that the game has changed? They shouldn't be. That would be to rob them of a benefit they assumed would be there for them after decades of service.

[magooch]

My main thought is, how sweet it is.  I hope this drives the libs wild.

[Conan The Librarian]

It already has. Check out today's reporting on npr.org. It's being cast as a loss for the 99% because the system is rigged to favor the 1%. (I guess that's how Obama got elected, right?)

[45-70.gov]

WALKER  IN  2016

[Savage .250]

   Looks like the majority of the voters like what the Gov is doing.   As for the unions/members, they shot their wad and came up..... with egg on their collective faces.
     

[tobster]

Most of the media has a laundry list of excuses. They fail to mention the unions threw everything but the kitchen sink at the recall and failed. I thinks it's a good  sign for things to come.  The losers were very rude to the reporter in Milwaukee when he tried to report the results by yelling and walking in front of the cameraman.

[Land_Owner]

Let us hope that this recall rejection, by 6 to 7 points, is a telling of future events in the more IMPORTANT rejection / election this November.

[ironglow]

Mine are:
 
1) The reporting on NPR has been bad. They reported that Walker got over 10 times the donations for the campaign and most of it was from out of state. That doesn't mention the money put into this by unions not even related to this public employee issue, like AFL/CIO. There was a lot of money put into this by unions from all over the country, but it is not even being mentioned. Also there were the rent-a-protesters that were bused in for months, the people from other states that drove around with "recall walker" messages on their cars, and a very active public relations campaign. All those things cost money, and it was obviously not a grass roots effort that added enough money to make that possible.
 
2) The recall petition was filed within days of Walker taking office.
 
3) Walker did not deceive anyone and did not commit any crimes or even improprieties. In fact, he's the rare polititician that actually did what he said he would do during the campaign.
 
4) The economic recovery in Wisconsin and a return to solvency for the state speak for themselves. Walker's policies have worked.
 
5) The election wasn't even close. 7% difference is a landslide by some people's definition of a landslide.
 
6) This has a very clarifying effect on the issue in Wisconsin, and will probably end up hurting the unions in the long run more than if they had not tried this political recall stunt.
 
7) Depending on what union you're reading about, from 1/3 to half of public union members have canceled their memberships. If that's not an indicator of dissatisfaction, I don't know what is.
 
  The teachers aren't at fault here. They simply hired into a system with a set of known benefits, and they chose based on rational incentives to do so. What's going to become of the long-time teachers and others? Are their retirement benefits in jeopardy now that the game has changed? They shouldn't be. That would be to rob them of a benefit they assumed would be there for them after decades of service.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 
  I agree completely with Conan here..
  And hasten to remind everyone here that the ultra-biased message Conan spoke of was delivered by NPR (National Public Radio).  Remember; we all pay for NPR to exist !

[SHOOTALL]

Maybe voters are voting Nation fixing over Nation building !

[DDZ]

My only thoughts are now that Walker won again, maybe this will be a trend across the nation, that public unions will not be getting everything they desire, as they have in the past. Its way past time these public union employees pay scale, and benefits become more in line with the private sector. Their days of raping the tax payers are over, at least in Wisconsin.       

[1sourdough]

 Walker didn't seek a fight with the unions, he sought to balance the Sate budget. We already pay enough taxes in WI.

[Couger]

Let us hope that this recall rejection, by 6 to 7 points, is a telling of future events in the more IMPORTANT rejection / election this November.

Damn straight!
 
Nicely said L.O.  Is the Sunshine State
gonna cast its delegates for the Mormon instead of the moron?     

[DDZ]

Walker didn't seek a fight with the unions, he sought to balance the Sate budget. We already pay enough taxes in WI.

He did seek to balance the state budget, and a big part of that was reigning in the theft from the public treasury, by the public unions. Its mostly what all the fuss was about.     

[hillbill]

My main thought is, how sweet it is.  I hope this drives the libs wild.

it did drive the libs wild. i heard one of them practically in tears and wailing that this is the end of democracy in the US! This confused me as he was put back in office by a vote of the people. is this not the definition of democracy??

[Cuts Crooked]

it did drive the libs wild. i heard one of them practically in tears and wailing that this is the end of democracy in the US!

Now that's a laugh riot!  Unions have more in common with socialism than democracy!

[Chainsaw]

 
 
Smiling so much today I can hardly type. Today is a great day to be a cheesehead.
 
Noticed the exit polling had it all wrong during voting yesterday. I believe that my state is now in play for the upcoming presidential elections, thanks to the public union movement being exposed for what it is.

[SHOOTALL]

it did drive the libs wild. i heard one of them practically in tears and wailing that this is the end of democracy in the US!

Now that's a laugh riot!  Unions have more in common with socialism than democracy!

why does MAY DAY come to mind 

[gypsyman]

Could be that NPR see's the handwriting on the wall? People are getting real tired of the handouts, and I believe your going to see a shake up in the not to distant future. Wisconsin is a starting point, when it hits the welfare class, and there isn't the handouts in the major cities, it will not be just the union workers crying the blues. gypsyman

[ironglow]

  See this crybaby;
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy8FSyI_Djg
 
    He bemoans the idea that "democracy is dead in America"...  democracy was never alive here. 
 
   We have a "republic" here..as our founders intended.  This dude seems to be confusing "democracy" with freedom.  few things could be further from the truth.  We should hope that democracy should never find a home here..since democracy.. is a kissing-cousin to socialism.

[yellowtail3]

Good on Gov Walker.
I didn't catch the NPR coverage of the election; I've been traveling last couple days and not in my car, which is where I most often get NRP.
On the NPR-bashing... I'll step out & speculate that most folks complaining loudest about NPR don't listen to it very often, and when they do... they're into evidence-gathering (kind of like cops who have quit investigating, and started to gathering evidence).
I think NPR does some great work. Perhaps I'll provide some examples, but they'll only matter if they'll be listened to.
Do they have political biases? Sometimes it seems that way, though nowhere  near as loud & blatant as most of their critics have, or accuse them of having. Here's something else: I think that a lot of what some folks (I'm thinking of Ironglow, fersinstance) detect as bias, is more them hearing something other than the accostomed echo-chamber of their friends and ideological soulmates. When you're an ideologue, everyone else sounds biased. Could it be that not everyone thinks like us?

That's the truth.
Anyhow... I was glad to see Walker prevail.

[lakota]

...and I believe your going to see a shake up in the not to distant future...

I wish that were true but I believe the only thing we are going to see is a BIG more of the same.  The electorate has proven time and time again that the majority of them are either stupid morons or that they just dont give a flying ***k.

[Buckskin]

I will admit, these are not my words, but my sentiments to a T...
 
 
 Letter to the Left
 
 
 To all leftists, occupiers, unionists and malcontents,
 
 Thank you! What an election! We couldn't have done it without you. Without
 your tantrums, outbursts and boorish behavior we might have stayed home for
 this election. Without your filthy, pot smoking hemp -headed minions
 occupying and violating the Capitol we might have been complacent. Without
 your obnoxious protests, boycotts and other actions from your union
 playbook, we might have sat this one out.
 
 But you couldn't hold back. You couldn't restrain yourselves and behave like
 adults. You couldn't accept the 2010 election results.  We sat and watched
 as you erupted in a juvenile hissy fit that embarrassed Wisconsin.  The
 spectacle you created is what motivated us. And thanks to your ill-mannered
 behavior, we won. We turned out. Big time! And now we are organized and
 energized. Committed. "All in". And we aren't going away. We now have our
 own organizations (no dues required), an army of volunteers and the means to
 communicate. And countless new sources of funding,  including a donor base
 from all 50 states. And we have "I verify the recall" to ferret out your
 infiltrators in our future local elections.
 
 So thank you Mike Tate, Graeme Zielinski, Fred "Loonie" Levenhagen, Ismael
 Ozanne, Maryanne Sumi, Noble Ray, Charles Tubbs,  Joanne Kloppenberg,
 Segway Boy, John Chisolm, public employee union members, UW TA's, WEAC,
 SEIU, MTI,  AFSCME Council 24 in Union Grove and WI prison guards,. Thanks
 for the death threats, the intimidation, the bullying, belligerence,
 thuggery and goonish behavior. The lack of ethics and the failure to enforce
 rules and laws. Thank you for putting your selfish, greedy motives on
 display for all taxpayers to see.
 
 Your antics might have made you feel good but they didn't make you look
 good. They sickened the rest of us.
 
 Thank you Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley. Your petty politics woke
 us up. Thanks you Miles Kristan for dumping the beer on Robin Vos's head.
 Thank you University doctors for writing the phony excuses; Madison teachers
 for calling in sick or dragging your students to the protests without
 permission. Thank you Katherine Windels for making death threats against the
 Governor. The noontime capitol singers who taunted Sheboygan high school
 students.  Thank you WEA Trust for raping Wisconsin taxpayers. Thank you
 Gwen Moore for your embarrassing minstrel show. And thanks all of  you for
 harassing the Walker family at their private home.
 
 You have all been exposed. Your tactics have been rejected. Your bad
 behavior has been forever captured on You Tube.
 
 Thank you Peter Barca and fellow Assembly members for donning your foolish
 orange T-shirts and screaming "shame" at legislators just doing their jobs.
 
 Thank you Mark Miller and all 14 senators for fleeing the state and making
 fools of yourselves in the process. Illinois need a few more village idiots.
 Thanks for showing us what democracy doesn't look like.
 
 And Mayor Barrett. How grateful we are that you chose one low road after
 another in your issue-less campaign against the Governor. This was your
 strike three. You are out. Take a seat on the bench and stay there. I have a
 hunch this was your final at-bat.
 
 All of you helped turn Wisconsin permanently red. Your Governor, Scott
 Walker, will not just complete his first term, he is all but assured as many
 future terms as he seeks. He will be your governor for a long, long time.
 Get used to it. And his national "rock star" status just might lead him to
 be your President some day. Just think, it couldn't have happened without
 you! So to all of you blue fister's, thank you from the bottom of my happy,
 red heart.
 
 
 Sincerely,
 A Wisconsin taxpayer 

[DDZ]

I keep hearing how the democrats were out spent 7 to1. That is nothing but a big steaming pile of cow dung. The media, and all the union hacks that were hell bent on sending Wisconsin into deeper debt, fail to mention the 21 million unions took from their members, and spent on the campaign. The unions also hired hundreds of political operatives paid them salaries from money, again taken from union members, then called them volunteers so their work isn't reported as campaign contributions. I guess their intention was to turn Wisconsin into California, or New York, where the productive are leaving in droves. 
I guess the unions have to blame someone or something, after wasting millions that didn't have to be wasted. Its so much easier to throw blame around, than look in the mirror.

[Cabin4]

Excellent results for the People in all 3 recent Wisconsin recall election cases. The corrupt state unions lost, and that means a big win for the majority citizens/tax payers. It's now a mandate, without question, that the people want:
1. Smaller state government that spends less
2. Has a fair & competitive compensation package for it's state union employees
3. Collective Bargaining is a corrupt and an extremely unfair advantage in the public sector
 
The Wisconsin results are likely a sign of what we will see in November.
 

[ironglow]

The "Letter to the Left" which Buckskin posted certainly reflects the sentiments of myself and I'll wager, many others.  When I first saw the reports coming out of Wisconsin, complete with photos, I must admit I was disturbed by the disrespect for public property and institutions..  The open thuggery was disconcerting, to say the least.
  Now however, like the author of that letter, i must thank the unions, teachers for their disrespect and thuggery... it has started a reaction which we can only hope will echo throughout the nation ...well past election day in November.

[Cabin4]

The unions are a Socialist movement now and they deploy Nazi like tactics. As proven in the film footage.

[ironglow]

Yep !  Here's what Barrett gets for tossing in the towel.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I62qjUVdEM

[tobster]

I agree with a radio host I listen to once in a while. By pressing for a recall, the Dems have succeeded  in bringing to light some of the sweet deals some public sector union members enjoy that the general public doesn't receive and can't afford to provide. Talk about big money- high saleries, lifetime health insurance for retirees, high pensions, and many other perks that the general public doesn't enjoy. I think many of these benefits will shock and enrage the general public.

[ironglow]

  I see YT is still saying NPR is remarkably fair, and of course he and I do not see things the same way.  Although not nearly as biased as P-MSNBC for instance, they should not be biased at all..since they are running heavily on taxpayer's dime.
  Note in the 4th paragraph, where NPR says Walker outspent Barrett something like 30 million to 3.6 million... a lie by omission, and they know it.
   http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/06/05/154384654/live-blog-wisconsin-decides-governors-fate-in-recall-vote
 
  NPR is well aware that unions have loopholes others do not have, so to be honest, the actual spending was something like 1.5 to 1.0..   http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/07/no-dems-were-not-outspent-7-to-1-in-wisconsin/
 
   ...And Bill Moyers, former press secretary to Lyndon baines Johnson and the "heart & soul" of NPR continues the facade..
     
      http://billmoyers.com/2012/06/05/how-much-money-has-been-spent-in-wisconsin/

[Richard P]

Buckskin summed it up quite nicely. November is not so far away. I hope the good citizens of Wisconsin take another opportunity to ''clean house''.  Dont let this momentum die now.
Ironglow --- The democracy is the root of the republic. We democratically elect representatives to serve for us and vote our sentiments. However, in no way did democracy die. Some folks seem to have never learned that we have a republic.  Democracy (small ''d'') showed itself well. The energized electorate turned out to voice its opinion and underscore the initial election. We do have a republic----if we can keep it.
Now having been confirmed by the electorate, it is time for the representatives to continue their work of making government serve the people. Too long we have seen the result of elected officials at all levels giving out other folks' money. If this election emboldens other Governors to stand for fiscal responsibility we will gain. rp