Theme # 1 is that Pres BO dumped the union members. I think that the left must be furious with Pres BO. I agree with Paul Begala that you have to stand by your friends, i.e. the unions that registered and got so many to vote for candidate BO in '08.
Theme # 2 is that the people of Wisconsin said 'enough is enough". I agree with former PA Gov Rendell that that the recall was a bad idea. It was an overreach and that usually backfires.
I think that we saw the anger with the recall in Gov Walker's victory yesterday. You can't get 53% of the popular vote in Wisconsin without adding some Dems to your ranks.
For 18 months, we've been watching people flooding the Capitol building and stopping traffic. My guess is that they don't represent the members of the unions but that was the image broadcast to the world. The union leadership lost control of its extremes and let them become the face of the protests.
Add to that legislators "escaping" the state.
Add the arrogance of public sector unions who feel entitled to our wallets. What part about "unsustainable" don't thee people get? We just don't have the money to continue making promises that we can't keep. Can you say Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France etc?
"Enough is enough" and that's what I interpret out of these elections in Wisconsin. In other words, the unions would have been better off holding their fire and going after Gov Walker in the next election.
What does this mean for Pres BO and everybody else?
First, the unions can not be happy with Pres BO flying over the state and "tweeting" his support the night before. What will happen when Pres BO calls on the Wisconsin unions to get the vote out in November?
Second, we saw another manipulation of "exit polls". Back in 2004, the exit polls had Sen Kerry beating Pres Bush. It did not happen. Yesterday, we heard that exit polls had it as a 50-50 race but it ended up 53-46%.
Third, Gov Walker's victory will energize other governors to fight the public sector unions. This is perhaps the best consequence of yesterday's vote.
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Tags: Some thoughts on the Wisconsin recall re or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!