After Wisconsin loss, more perils loom for Obama

Good, he should now look at what he promised before being elected.

And The One who passes blame for everything from the state of the economy to jobs to the color of his bowel movement has the nerve to state...

"“And because they don’t have any new ideas, what they will do is spend 500, 700, a billion dollars in negative ads and their simple message will be: This is someone else’s fault and that’s enough reason for you to vote for us,”

Has he not been blaming Bush for most of the past three years and is now passing the blame to Europe? LMAO the guy is a nutter if he thinks the public believes him...I'm sure The One will spend not one dollar on negative ads because he is above that sort of thing!

At a San Francisco fundraiser Wednesday, Obama told donors that “the other side” doesn’t have any new ideas.   “And because they don’t have any new ideas, what they will do is spend 500, 700, a billion dollars in negative ads and their simple message will be: This is someone else’s fault and that’s enough reason for you to vote for us,” he said.

Despite that being the obvious truth, it certainly helped the repubs in 2010. If Americans have their heads in the sand like the French did this year we're all in trouble

Romney has no credible plan. Just another whore for corporate greed that has had to sell its' black soul to the extreme right. He is not the solution to American woes.  

Yanee,

When you post childish outbursts like the one above, you should know you're doing your small part in helping sway moderates to voting for President Obama. Keep up the good work!

Well Obama didn't win any friends by abandoning the libs in the state. Heh, bombarding Wisconsin with emails isn't the type of "leadership" Wisconsin democrats were hoping for.

Congratulations to Walker for doing what he said he would and restoring fiscal sanity to that state.

RR

Even more great news out of Wisconsin.

All 4 Republican Party state senators won by at least 60% of the vote in their recalls.

Jerry Petrowski (R), 26,573 64% Donna Seidel (D), 15,041 36%

Van Wanggaard (R), 11,301 62% John Lehman (D), 7,033 38%

Scott Fitzgerald (R), 32,254 60% Lori Compas (D), 21,324 39%

Terry Moulton, (R), 22,491 60% Kristen Dexter (D), 14,765 40%

It appears the people of Wisconsin are more than just a little upset with the democrats.

RR

Using exit polling stats, CNN predicted it was a "too close to call" race. Viewers could actually hear the despair in Wolf Blitzer's voice when he had to announce Walker was the winner by a landslide. Heh, At one point, I was expecting a News Alert scroll at the bottom of my TV screen saying that half of the BSNBC staff were on suicide watch and the other half had been carted off to the looney bin. Man, it was so much fun to watch.

RR

Using exit polling stats, CNN predicted it was a "too close to call" race.

With the ratings that CNN has, it makes one wonder if Obama is really as popular as the media keep saying. It really is a shame that CNN can't just give us the news without some type of bias thrown in. I imagine in the next couple of months until the election, we will see more and more pollls that say that the Presidental race is too close to call, with Romney probably more ahead than the media wants to admit.

In the next couple of months until the election, we will see more and more polls that say that the Presidential race is too close to call, with Romney probably more ahead than the media wants to admit.

I agree. Looks like a repeat of the 2004 election cycle. Only this time the incumbent will be on the losing end of those "exit poll" figures.

RR

At a San Francisco fundraiser Wednesday, Obama told donors that “the other side” doesn’t have any new ideas. “And because they don’t have any new ideas, what they will do is spend 500, 700, a billion dollars in negative ads and their simple message will be: This is someone else’s fault and that’s enough reason for you to vote for us,” he said.

which is more amusing - - - obama so panicked that he would claim romney - lucky if he gets half a million - is going to spend half a trillion to become president, or seeing the faithful (madverts) swoon and dutifully repeat such nonsense ?

walker did down-ticket democrats a huge favor. there is still time for a eugene mccarthy - type eruption within the party.but obama's ego is too massive, his messiah complex too malignant, and the grip the far left radicals have on the party is too strong.

Well Obama didn't win any friends by abandoning the libs in the state.

This was the wrong fight at the wrong time, and the President was smart enough to see that. Wisconsin liberals overreached for several reasons, particularly the following two.

First, the issue at hand was vague. While many support unions even amongst public employees, the good times of the '90s caused many unions to negotiate unsustainable contracts. Thus, the line between supporting unions themselves and between particular contracts realized was blurred.

Second, a recall is a drastic measure that runs against the politically conservative nature of a republican system. Elected leaders pursue policies that turn out to be more or less popular, but the proper time and place for making judgement is at the scheduled election. If every tiff turned into a recall, the stability of the American system would be undermined. Thus, many who sympathized with the unions still felt that a recall was not warranted in this case.

It appears the people of Wisconsin are more than just a little upset with the democrats.

Exit polls show that Obama enjoys a clear advantage in Wisconsin; the vote cannot be taken as a referendum on Democrats in general. Democrats need to show flexibility in remedying excessive public perks enacted in the past; Republicans need to acknowledge that this win is in no way a carte blanc for partisanship.

The American system works. Bring on November!

It was a total wash out for democrats and the union thugs. $35 million spent. Massive voter turnout. And they still lost 100% of the recall elections against republicans.

Sweet.

RR

While many support unions even amongst public employees, the good times of the '90s caused many unions to negotiate unsustainable contracts. Thus, the line between supporting unions themselves and between particular contracts realized was blurred.

In san Diego and San Jose, voters decided to curb some of the pension plans for Public Employees. A lot of those voters were Dems and in cities run by Dems. So I think that the far left has ruined the Dem party in WI by making this seem like Walker and the GOP are anti union. If you look at what Walker did, he merely had to limit some of the power the unions had in determing pay, so that state governments can pay bills. Unlike a private company, public employee union workers works for a company that in most cases doesn't make a profit, i.e. public government service. If there is a surplus, that money goes back into the state coffers to pay for other state programs, and not as extra to workers. For all of the union benefits that the public employees get, they are not paid by the unions, but by the states themselve. How do they get that money if there is not enough? By raising taxes.

It used to be in the past that unions actually paid pensions, but for them that got too expensive and decided that it was up to the state/employee to do it and not them. What they do with the dues money, is beyond me.

"they'll be running on a weak economy"

Well, of course the economy is still weak, it's only been three and a half years since Bush left office, lol.

$35 million spent.

Thanks for bringing up the money thing, RR. Even a level playing field would probably have not changed the results, but, wow, talk about an uneven playing field!

Under Wisconsin rules, incumbents are permitted to ignore contribution limits in a recall election, while challengers are not. The result is a huge influx in out-of-state contributions for Walker, many from the usual list of suspects (that Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, rolling in cash now that Gingrich is off the teat, gave $250,000 - Nevada might not have much in common with Wisconsin, but Las Vegas casino magnates tend to hate unions. Houston home builder Bob Perry gave $490,000; home builders tend to hate unions, too). Walker raised $30.5 million - much from out of state - while his challenger raised $3.9 million.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation: Walker won 1,334,450 and spent some $30,000,000, or about $22 per vote; Barrett won 1,162,785 and spent some $3,000,000, or about $2 per vote. Thus, Walker's 171,665 advantage works out to about $157 per vote.

Again, the bucks were likely not the clincher, but they do deserve serious attention.

This was the wrong fight at the wrong time, and the President was smart enough to see that.

He sure was smart to stay away from that fight in Wisconsin.........Leadership on his part once again on display.

Again, the bucks were likely not the clincher, but they do deserve serious attention.

Agreed.

Barack Obama is outspending John McCain at nearly a three-to-one clip on television time in the final weeks of the presidential election, according to ad buy information obtained by The Fix, a financial edge that is almost certainly contributing to the momentum for the Illinois senator in key battleground states.

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, Obama spent more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states including more than $3 million in Pennsylvania and more than $2 million each in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. McCain in that same time frame spent just $7.2 million in 15 states. Even when the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure spending in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin is factored in (a total of $5.3 million), Obama still outspent the combined GOP forces by roughly $8 million in the last week alone.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2008/obamas-spending-edge.html

.Leadership on his part once again on display.

Yes, it is: And once again a signal that he is not the radical Republicans paint him to be. Not that they'll notice. Jesus could come down from heaven and anoint the man and many on the right would demand proof of birth.

To shift the opinion of an intelligent man, all is required is proof; but nothing on earth or heaven will ever shift the opinion of the foolish.

You don't have to be a Sconnie Cheesehead to know that RR is juming the gun.

Van Wangaard at 62%? Why, I just checked the final vote count on the Wisconsin State Journal website, and it shows Van Wanggaard losing with only 49.5% of the vote, 1% less than his opponent. Amazingly, in Racine, the GOP tea party types turned on a guy in their own party, probably because he is a former cop, therefore tainted by association to public unions. Walker won in that district but the GOP senator lost, most likely handing control over the Wisconsin state senate to the Democrats (after a perfunctory recount in the coming days).

"total wash out for the democrats"

How does RR figure? The Wisconsin Democrats almost certainly have gained control of the state senate (at least for the rest of this year, meaning no special sessions for Walker) by defeating a couple senators by recall last summer and Van Wanggaard this summer. Add that to the GOP senator who quit one or two months under threat of recall, and you have to conclude that the overall recall losses have been a lot deeper for the party of "fiscal sanity."

Jumping the gun

Forget those wildly inaccurate exit polls. My hometown newspaper back in the dairy state reported that Walker won by a 20% margin, which is off by a margin of 3x. Here are the vote totals that handed the Wisconsin senate to the Democrats:

Lehman 36,255

Van Wanggaard 35, 476

And I forgot to mention that another GOP senator Dale Schultz recently broke party ranks to go against proposed mining legislation that had no discernible author, obviously the handiwork of corporate consultancy ALEC.

"It appears that the people of Wisconsin are more than a little upset with the democrats" so they punished them by...

giving them control of the state senate?

The people of Wisconsin are not a monolithic entity, just like whatever state RR is from. California? Exit polls by the gift shop?

If a liberal state like WI -- the birthplace of thug labor unions -- supports fiscal conservative republicans, the Obama's need to decide what to pack for their trip back to Chicago next January.

RR

I'm not sure why Romney even wants the job. Surely he doesn't think the title of "Republican" will save him from the radicalized Tea Party crowd.

Obama and fellow Democrats are losing momentum five months before the November elections

Wisconsin could do a lot worse than reaffirming support for a fiscal conservative republican governor who has, in less than eighteen months, done what he promised to do if elected: lower state unemployment, keep taxes low, lower the deficit and keep public workers working (and contributing to their own entitlements - like all us private sector workers have to do).

Wisconsin wins and, hopefully, this landslide decision in WI will make all voters across Americans take a closer look at the general election in November and put a person into the Oval Office who knows what steps need to be taken to get us out of this mess Obama has put us deeper and deeper into.

RR

"thug labor unions"

Like the police, firefighters, teachers, and all other public workers, right? What's your idea, privatize all these professions and always hire the lowest bidders, as is the trend with for-profit prisons and charter schools? Every police officer should be on shopping mall rent a cop salary and benefits?

If this is the libertarian tea party approach, then it makes sense that the GOP would forfeit control of the Wisconsin senate to teach 30 year police veteran Van Wanggaard a lesson. But what's the lesson--once a (union) cop, always a RINO thug?

"the radicalized Tea Party crowd" AKA the die hard Ron Paul fans

TEA stands for, simply, "taxed enough already." The idea is to extend the Bush tax cuts and see America's debt climb to 200% of GDP, as predicted by the GAB. To some, that translates into "fiscal sanity." Others scratch their head wondering how you keep taxes low forever and make our international military and domestic civil institutions self-funded. That is the Ron Paulite platform in a nutshell, is it not?

Laguna

The American system works. Bring on November!

After reading your post. It reminded me of that guy right after the election, crying about how Democracy is dead. Because Walker won, Democracy is dead! Just made me laugh.

Like the police, firefighters, teachers, and all other public workers, right? What's your idea, privatize all these professions and always hire the lowest bidders, as is the trend with for-profit prisons and charter schools? Every police officer should be on shopping mall rent a cop salary and benefits?

Sorry, guess you missed the month where they occupied the Wisconsin capital, busing in protestors from out of state. Teachers abandoning their classes so they could attend the protests. (Guess it wasn't about the children after all.) You obviously missed the riot that occurred just yesterday.

TEA stands for, simply, "taxed enough already." The idea is to extend the Bush tax cuts and see America's debt climb to 200% of GDP, as predicted by the GAB. To some, that translates into "fiscal sanity."

Tea Party is not about low taxes. Sure, most of them support it. But what brings them together, is the simple idea, that government cannot spend more money then it brings in. That we cannot sustain forever this deficit spending. We must balance the budget. Thats what its all about. Fiscal sanity.

@Molenir,

Thanks for the reminder, but I already knew about the protests last year. Can't verify your riot claim, though. The Madison protests don't devolve into riots because there is no heavy handed security outside the capitol building, and inside just the regular capitol police force doing their jobs and earning beaucoup overtime.

What about those protests in Arizona about Paul Babeu jumping the gun (getting to be a theme here) about what happened to the Butwin family a few days ago?

If you feel strongly about it, get out there and make a counter protest to defend the sherriff. Or if you were serious in the last post, then start a protest against another Arizona sherriff exercising "fiscal sanity" by sending a deputy to Hawaii to search for Obama's birth certificate, when it ended up getting resolved by an email that costs nothing.

I'm not sure why Romney even wants the job. Surely he doesn't think the title of "Republican" will save him from the radicalized Tea Party crowd.

his veep pick will say much. i don't worry about the tea party crowd. their gatherings, unlike the occupy dorkfests, did not leave behind murder and rape victims. tea partiers, unlike the occupy idits, did not do tens of millions of dollars of damage in the cities where they gathered to exercise their constitutional right to protest.

The idea is to extend the Bush tax cuts and see America's debt climb to 200% of GDP, as predicted by the GAB

clinton, the only post-war dem ever elected president twice, thinks the so called bush tax cuts should be extended. but then he is far too moderate for the far left loons who have taken over his once-great party....

A back-of-the-envelope calculation: Walker won 1,334,450 and spent some $30,000,000, or about $22 per vote; Barrett won 1,162,785 and spent some $3,000,000, or about $2 per vote. Thus, Walker's 171,665 advantage works out to about $157 per vote.

I got out my envelope and calculated that Barrett lost 100% of the election.

To shift the opinion of an intelligent man, all is required is proof; but nothing on earth or heaven will ever shift the opinion of the foolish.

So very true - thus so many Liberals will again vote for Obama this Fall. The good news however, is that we are in the midst of a change in public opinion about President Obama. People will not be fooled into believing that he has done much of anything in the last four years to help turn around the American economy. Instead of roaring back from a deep recession as occurred in Reagan's first term, the economy is stuck in neutral and unemployment is actually going up again despite more than $5 trillion in new deficit spending.

If not the worst president in American history, Obama is surely in the bottom three. There is no hope for the guy - and you can keep the change.

"I'm not sure why Romney even wants the job"

Well, it's not for the money, that's for sure.

@Serrano, Romney retired years ago because he doesn't need any more money. His personal wealth is more than the most recent seven presidents combined. Therefore you have to wonder at his motivation, if he doesn't need to work and lacks the ideological fervor of someone like Ron Paul. Just trying to redeem his dad, it seems. Hey, didn't the GOP (over)spend 2000-2008 propping up another fortunate son to honor an unfairly maligned dad? Sheesh, we don't have time for any more "compassionate" foreign quagmires that take more than two full terms to resolve.

Though Serrano makes a good point about the meagerness of the U.S. president's salary. What does it say when run of the mill manzai comedians in Japan (with mom on welfare, no less) are making more than our political leadership. Not a good way to attract the most talented Americans to the job.

heh well it will be a substantial cut in pay.... Honestly, I don't see why any Republican will want the job with the Tea Party around. They don't care what party you're from. They just post a list of demands on your door and walk away.

Again, the bucks were likely not the clincher, but they do deserve serious attention.

But what you are missing is that he Public employee unions and other unions were against Walker. They have money to spend on ant-Walker campaign ads and to get enough people to volunteer to get the signatures needed to get the recall election in the first place.

One thing that Walker did was make it voluntary for public employees to be union members, and thus not be forced to pay union dues. What happened? almost half of the teachers in the Education union quit and the union took a huge hit in income. That income (dues) by the unions is not taxable (at least in states like CA). So don't let the numbers fool you. Walker had to raise money, because he didn't have a money machine like the unions backing him. It was union money, as I pointed out, that was able to get the recall election in the first place.

If you feel strongly about it, get out there and make a counter protest to defend the sherriff. Or if you were serious in the last post, then start a protest against another Arizona sherriff exercising "fiscal sanity" by sending a deputy to Hawaii to search for Obama's birth certificate, when it ended up getting resolved by an email that costs nothing.

I'm actually from Arizona, in fact from Maricopa county. The Sheriff you are referring to is Arpaio, not Babeu. And allow me to simply say, I look forward to voting against him. Not because of his politics, but because of his lack of ethics. He and the former Maricopa County attorney general charged and prosecuted people for simply opposing their politics. I happen to agree with their politics, but I don't agree with that. Not in the slightest. And as far as I'm concerned, the birther issue is dead. Should it be an issue in order to be on the ballot? Absolutely. Every state in the union should require proof that a Presidential candidate meets all the qualifications to run for the office. But Hawaii has satisfied Ken Bennett on the issue, and thats good enough for me.

Romney retired years ago because he doesn't need any more money. His personal wealth is more than the most recent seven presidents combined. Therefore you have to wonder at his motivation, if he doesn't need to work and lacks the ideological fervor of someone like Ron Paul. Just trying to redeem his dad, it seems.

we could say the exact same of obama. he does not need to work. he will make millions after leaving office. he could walk away from the job tomorrow. you really have to wonder about his motivation.father issues? hey - didn't the title from one of obama's two autobiographies speak of his father, and his father's dreams?

yours is a very easy game to play....

Obama must be the first person to release an autobiography before doing anything of any consequence.

@Serrano

Yeah dude, the guy has just been working at 7/11 since he left school, don't you know. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

@Johhny

Yeah, the people working at 7/11 got more worldly experience than Obama got before he was immaculated, nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Tawns, Can not vote for them or even give them money. Oh the joys of being an alien in America.

Came across a candidate for the 2nd Congressional district in Oklahoma. "I'd like to help you sir, But I can not vote."

"last wek's abysmal unemployment numbers"

Heck, this is all Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld's fault! Don't people realize it's gonna take most of Obama's two terms to fix this mess?

YuriOtani - So, this is what you really look like? And all this time I thought you looked like Speed Racer!