Scott Walker's sparsely-attended campaign swing in Virginia for now-defeated gubernatorial candidate and fellow Tea Partier Ken Cuccinelli looks todau like an ambitious fool's long-distance errand, but let's give Walker archivists and political reporters some material for their 2016 campaign notebooks:
Beginning with Walker's Tea Party bona fides that seem to have diminishing value:
* "I am the original Tea Party in Wisconsin."
On the union-busting he bragged about in Virginia, some Walker fact-checking:
* When he suddenly introduced his unprecedented roll-back of public-sector collective bargaining (Act 10), Walker also said "collective bargaining is fully intact."
* And then spoke falsely when he'd said "I'd campaigned on this all throughout the election."
Now on to Walker's claims of growth in Wisconsin, where his 250,000 new jobs' pledge is waaaaaaaay behind schedule, but:
* When the actual number was 25,411, Walker said, "We're just under 100,000."
* And, finally, while Cuccinelli's crusade against women drove female voters ito the victorious Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, Walker had put himself on the wrong side of that pivotal issue by signing a bill mandating ultrasounds for women seeking legal abortions. Unmarried women (and men) gave McAuliffe a huge margin.
On this issue, a lose-lose.
With the final margin at 2-3% I would say the trouble is for the democrats.
ReplyDeleteExit polls showed the race was close because of the overwhelming opposition to Obamacare and the fact that Cuccinelli was outspent by over 15 million dollars (35 mil vs 20 mil)
This race should have been a 6-8% MOV and it wasn't. That doesn't bode well for Democrats in the midterms next year.
"I don't have any problem with ultrasound,"
ReplyDeletetruly spoken like a person who will never be forced by the government to have one shoved into him.
Smaller government, huh?
"I don't have any problem with ultrasound," Walker said. "I think most people think ultrasounds are just fine."
ReplyDeletei would take that to mean that the governor would be willing to submit to a rectal ultrasound probe of his prostate. To insure the complete health of the serving governor.
Additionally, he would agree to see to it that legislation be introduced, past and signed that would require a complete male reproductive system exam including a rectal ultrasound of the prostate and other reproductive structures for any male seeking or receiving erectile dysfunction drugs.
To get the little "blue pill" a yearly ultrasound exam would be mandated.
Walker should be totally on board with this... after all it is only a slightly different version of... you want to play you have to pay.
With the final margin at 2-3% I would say the trouble is for the democrats.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Yeah, winning a race in a purple state. We should have more such trouble.
if Virginia was a proxy referendum on Obamacare, it seems that the Republicans lost. Again.
Also, winning a state where the incumbent President's party hasn't won the Governorship since 1977. Oh, woe! such troubles!
ReplyDeleteIt is, however, assuredly good news for John McCain.
Lookign forward to FOAIing the hell out of Cuccinelli's emails.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon@7:35. The ACA will improve; people will come around to its benefits. Remember that in spite of all the negative publicity the favorability polls haven't exactly plummeted. But Scott Walker has deliberately set it up to fail in WI, first by refusing Medicaid money then by throwing thousands of people off Badgercare and telling them to enroll in Obamacare without the extra help those dollars would have provided.
ReplyDeleteHe will campaign on saving Wisconsin from the 'failures' of Obamacare, the press coverage will reinforce that idea, and you can bet your boots that he won't have the fundraising issues that the Cooch had.
I would love to see Virginia as a sign of things to come, but frankly right now I don't trust either Wisconsin citizens or the Wisconsin press to see Walker for what he is.
Obama's approval rating is plummeting. It has now dropped to the upper 30s. The ACA is tanking.
ReplyDeleteThe ACA itself is doing OK, it's getting the large amount of people signed up that's the temporary problem. I dare Scotty to run against Obamacare this time next year, when it's covered, working, and premiums lower. You can whine and lie about a program before it's fully in effect, like the Baggers are doing right now, but it's a whole lot harder to keep up the lie when it's been in place for 10 months, as it will be in November 2014.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Wisconsin is brutally lagging its Midwestern neighbors in seeing those benefits (like it now lags 3 of our bordering states in marriage equality), Scotty won't be able to get away with the "Obamacare is a train wreck in Wisconsin" argument, since the reason will clearly be HIM AND THE TEA-O-P.
If Dems go strong and progressive, they are set up to win big. The only reason they didn't win by more in Va is because McAuliffe is a corporatist scumbag that led many young folks to vote 3rd party.
What Jake said. It is notable that the Democrats that ran as progressives, won big. diBlasio, that huge commie, won as big as anyone ever has in New York.
ReplyDeleteI really want to know if Scott Walker has his butt cheeks suspiciously clenched. Particularly since the new improved John Doe* (*now new and improved with more indictments and cooperating plea agreements) has burst on the scene like a leaking Vitter costume.
ReplyDeleteBecause all Scooter has to do is visit New Mexico while driving clenched and he'll find these probes can be a bi-sexual type of invasion.
Check out MSNBC's "The Ed Show" videos for 11/04/13. Ed visited with Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky, who discussed his state's successful implementation of a health insurance exchange in compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Quite a success story if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, this description of how Kentucky had the foresight to develop a plan that was in the best interests of Kentucky: "Working collaboratively with the Department for Medicaid Services and the Kentucky Department of Insurance, the state developed an inter-agency Exchange Team that met regularly to define issues of governance, information technology (IT), and eligibility. In June 2012, the state released survey results revealing stakeholder support for a state-based exchange with an independent governing board." Further, "On July 17, 2012, Governor Steven L. Beshear (D) issued Executive Order 587 establishing the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange (KHBE) after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA)."
Not only do Kentucky citizen's now have access to better and more affordable health insurance, they also benefited from the new jobs the project generated!
It's amazing how much good people can accomplish, when they WANT to.
He said, "We're just waaaaaaaay under 100,000." but the media left out the waaaaaaaay just to make him look like a big fat liar.
ReplyDelete