Can't Someone in the Governor's Office Read a Graph

The local paper ran a graph on job growth over the past 2 years.  Of course our Governor touted the increase and there is one, but the Governor went on to say that it shows that we are on the right track.  I looked at the graph and came away with a totally different assessment.  First the graph finishes with a decline.  This decline is part of the normal cycle, except that it appears to be steeper that the past declines shown.  Second we divert from the national line for the first time in the 2 year time period shown.  The national job growth of the Obama economy is outstripping Scott Walker's open for business economy.  Conservatives love to point out how Obama tanked the economy.  I want to know what they are saying about the Wisconsin economy under the Republicans?

The other thing that is not discussed is just how much are these new jobs paying?  I don't see many high paying jobs being advertised.  Mississippi and Alabama here we come.  Our politicians already have co-opted their laws we might as well have their economy.

The Rematch

That was the headline.  Is anyone else wondering how this will play out when the number of people who voted for Scott Walker who ran against a Lafollette/ Teddy Roosevelt Republican got almost as many votes as all of the Democrats combined?  Assuming most of the Republicans stayed home because they knew Walker would easily win, where were the Democrats?  Some Republicans might of voted because of fear that the Democrats would have crossed over.  This is baseless, the Democrats needed to select a strong candidate.  There was simply no reason to vote in the Republican primary if you were a Democrat.  In normal times I would have voted for a Republican who quotes Fighting Bob and Roosevelt but these aren't normal times.  So in the end Barrett wins convincingly.  This is like saying there was a mistake we need a do over.  This is a candidate who the last time ran a bad campaign.  He didn't lose to Walker because of the wave election he lost because he was a bad campaigner.  He did a poor job articulating what he wanted to do.  He did a poor job exposing Scott Walkers record to the rest of the State.  I always hear from people that the Gov. didn't campaign on this stuff.  The truth is that he at one time or another mentioned everything that was contained in Act 10 and for the most part it was reported.  You just had to pay attention.  Plus there was his record of dealing with his employees in Milwaukee County.  His record was known.  Maybe the Barrett supporters feel that he can run a lackluster campaign and get away with it because everyone now knows about the Governor.  Barrett's challenge this time will be fighting off distortions and half truths about his record as Mayor of Milwaukee.  These are charges that can't be defended in a 30 second commercial but they play well to the public and they will be heard in saturation on radio and TV.  He has his work cut out and based on the number of voters who went to the polls yesterday he'll need to inspire people to come out and vote because for sure the Governor's supporters will vote.

Fake Democrats

Lets start this out by saying this is wrong and the election board decision is wrong. If you are going to run as a partisan you should be a member of that party otherwise run as an independent. What Republicans are saying is that if the races aren't contested we need to make sure that there is a primary. If we want to go that way why don't we go to a system where all of names are on the primary ballot and the top 2 vote getters go on to the general election unless there are only 2 candidates where the winner wins. This would of course mean that you could have general elections where both candidates maybe from the same party. Think of the Governor race or the race for US Senate. It could easily be Falk versus Barrett in the Governor race and it could be Thompson versus Neumann in the Senate race.