Thursday, June 7, 2018

Least surprising Walker headline repeats itself

In today's not breaking news:
Walker once again misses 250,000 new jobs goal
Also not breaking news: a lede that has written itself since 2011: 
In his first seven years in office, Gov. Scott Walker presided over an increase of 213,000 private-sector jobs in Wisconsin, short of the 250,000 new jobs the Republican promised in his first four years.
For the record, note that there was a time the 250,000 figure was a promise not a goal, a floor not a ceiling, and worthy of being tattooed on his Cabinet members' foreheads...
Promise of 250,000 jobs hasn't changed, Scott Walker says
...Walker presented the jobs number as an ironclad promise, not a goal. Walker joked about branding the figure on the foreheads of his cabinet secretaries and said 250,000 jobs was "my floor, not my ceiling." 
And remember the good old days, when both Walker and key rocket right-hand man Robin Vos both predicted skyrocketing jobs' takeoffs once those pesky recall protestors had been put in their place?

Failure, normalized.

But that was then, and he's already blamed his failure on Jim Doyle, Obamacare, a recall election, Barack Obama, Syrian rebels, State Capitol protesters, bad data, government in general - - but this is now, and... hey, look over here...Foxconn
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you have a post about this -- I thought about pointing this out in a comment as I think it fits in some threads you created the last few days.

However, we need to acknowledge that Christian Schneider, a pro-walker hold-over from Journal Communications days, will get much more column space in the coming weeks in both print editions and the web. A reasonable argument can be made that the collapse of Journal Communications was a direct result of turning against its home-town Milwaukee and directing the flames of hate towards its citizens.

This strategy sold well in Waukesha and certain communities. Without this powerful 1-2 punch from WTMJ AM and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, there would never have been a Gov. Walker. His record from Milwaukee County is dismal.

So kudos to MJS for telling the truth here. You are right to highlight and celebrate this. However, what matters is how this plays-out in the coming weeks.

Remember, in 2014, Walker's media minions, including all Journal Communications assets, flushed this story down the memory hole by letting Walker weasel-out with the false claim that 250,000 was merely another "big and bold" (tm) idea.

Hacks like Christian Schneider told us it was "unfair" to hold this massive failure against Walker, as he was merely "aiming high". If I can be direct and honest, I believe we will see Scott Walker, MJS, and Wisconsin's right-wing noise machine play that card again.

It should be laughable on its face that, going into a 3rd term, Walker still comes nowhere close to the goal what he clearly told us all to judge him by in his first term. Foxconn is all about creating a massive distraction from his economic failures. Walker and his GOP toadies do not care how much this bamboozle costs taxpayers.

Donald Trump's daily and endless lies are just the Scott Walker playbook executed by a man that had many years of national media exposure and many years of experience perfecting a TEE-VEE dog-and-pony show.

Anonymous said...

Please let me clarify -- when I said "celebrate" I was referring to the fact that this is being covered as the legitimate news it is. In no-way did I mean to imply that this failure and the economic damage done to working families should be celebrated.

I am just glad to see MJS carry a story that they flushed down the memory hole in 2014. Time will tell if Gannet is going to prop-up Walker with propaganda. I think they were largely on the tRump train and they held-on to Christian Schneider while letting some other more-worthy people go.

Schneider is neither qualified to be their "go-to" political analyst and he does not have the integrity to play this role. He is a partisan hack from Journal Communications.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

We also need to remind people that the "250,000 jobs" were to happen in 4 years. It likely won't happen in 8 years. So it's a much bigger FAIL.

Also, let's not forget that Wisconsin would have 115,000 more jobs if we merely kept up with the rest of the country, and 90,000 more of we had kept up with Minnesota.

Also, given that peopie are leaving Fitzwalkerstan, it's even more difficult to add jobs. Walker doesn't get to talk about "record-low unemployment" without mentioning that a big reason,behind it is THAT WE ARE LOSING TALENT TO PLACES WITH BETTER WAGES AND A QUALITY OF LIFE.