Journal-Sentinel Editorial Takes Walker to Task

Overall, Governor Walker’s demonstrated a real failure of leadership.

Businesses have to have demand for what they do before they hire. And for whatever reason, Wisconsin companies are doing less hiring over the past few months than their peers in other states. Even the much-maligned Illinois has performed better. There is no obvious answer to this riddle.

[…]

Walker seems to believe the magical thinking that Wisconsin can recruit businesses from other states. This approach has seldom worked for the Badger State. It is far better to create incentives and capital pools for start-up businesses. But the centerpiece of that effort – a bill to jump-start venture capital – flopped because Walker couldn’t persuade his own party to abandon a risky version of the bill in the Assembly last year. Another centerpiece initiative – to loosen mining regulation – did too little to protect the environment and couldn’t achieve bipartisan support. Republicans thought they could ram it through without proper input. They were wrong. We suspect former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson would have found a way to get both bills passed.

Walker’s Republican colleagues in the Legislature did find time for voter ID, promoting abstinence in the place of comprehensive sex education and other issues that play well with social conservatives. But their lack of political discipline was disappointing at a time when the state needs smart strategic thinking and execution and to maintain a laserlike focus on the main problem the state has: a lack of jobs.

Like we said: The eyes came off the ball.

Wisconsin, you have chance to rectify this situation on June 5th.  Vote these collective failures out.

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16 thoughts on “Journal-Sentinel Editorial Takes Walker to Task

  1. It was not Republicans that turned their back on thousands of new jobs in the north and around the state.

    1. That’s it, dante? The mine was the end all, be all for job creation?

      What about all those months of job losses in Wisconsin before the mining bill failed? Who’s to blame for those, if not the Republicans who controlled every aspect of state government?

    2. Dude, even the republicans came off that talking point. It was NEVER going to create thousands of jobs.

      The ignorance, it burns.

  2. Well lets see the area with the largest job loss was in the Milwaukee area, hmmmm one name comes to mind there TOM BARRETT.

    1. Well, let’s see, the Milwaukee area has a third of the population of the state, so it’s going to have more job losses than the boondocks. Basic math skills, Dante.

      And, of course, the mayor of the city is not in charge of “the Milwaukee area,” only the city, if still with a fifth of the population of the state. Basic map skills as well as math skills, Dante.

      And still is trying to recover from the incompetence of Walker’s control of the parts of the city that are county property, the parks and the Park East land and the like.

      A tip: Get off the computer, pick up a book, practice some math, and then come on back when you have “the tools” even to engage at the most basic levels of this debate.

  3. Ouch truth hurts he milwaukeean, your boy barrett has been a flop for the city and now that he is going to be the candidate against Scott Walker you are bitter and angry and it comes out it the tone of your post. You realize barrett has no chance in defeating Scott Walker. Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs under Doyle and none of you cared about them, and now we are all supposed to believe you give a rip about a few thousand last jobs. No one is believing it we all know this is nothing more then more entitlement anger from the unions.

    1. I maintain that chief executives, president and governors, have little impact on job creation in their districts; it is a function of the market which is largely out of their control. But since Walker made it the yardstick by which he was to be judged, I’m perfectly willing to jump in.

      Yes, jobs were lost on Doyle’s watch, but it mirrored the national trend during the most severe recession on record. Further, WI started to create jobs recovery began, again mirroring the national trend. When Walker’s policies and budget came to fruition, that trend was was reversed, and we began seeing jobs disappear, in contrast to EVERY OTHER STATE IN THE NATION. It’s not that difficult to understand if you would just open your eyes. How you guys can continue to support this putz (and yes, I know the real meaning of the word) is beyond me.

    2. Huh? The truth about my city doesn’t “hurt,” as it’s a great, liveable city, and I love it here. And I greatly admire my mayor, a fine man who has served me well for many years.

      As for Doyle, I couldn’t stand him, but you overstate the job loss under him — and entirely miss the real hits on him that you could make.

      See, I’m not bound by party or squawk radio nonsense that you spout. I make up my own mind, based on my own research into the realities.

      I’m sorry for you that you must not live in a nice place, and must not have such a fine, decent person for a mayor, as that must be the reason that you are so bitter, Dante. You’re wasting your time here with us, but if that keeps you out of juvenile hall, fine.

  4. Two totally true comments from Jim Spice. Given that it was Scott Walker who pointedly screwed over Tom Barrett and the City of Milwaukee with severe budget cuts and no real way to make them up, I can’t see how it’s Barrett’s fault that the Milwaukee area suffers. After all, that includes the Sykes suckers in the 262 whose home values are also plummeting, which makes those $20 in property tax savings pretty darn meaningless.

    And as Jim points out, when did WisGOPs stop being results-oriented, and instead resemble a bunch of meatheads in Cheesehead hats who root for their ‘team’ instead of caring about the game itself. Those people must be thrown into the dustbin of history over the next 6 months.

    I’ll give the J-S more creedence when it goes against its MMAC masters and refuses to endorse Walker due to his failures and corruption. Otherwise these are empty words

  5. I agree, Jake: Empty words, and especially after the first part of the editorial praising Walker.

    This is reminiscent of the JS endorsement of Walker, which was so weird in being so iffy but endorsed him, anyway.

    In sum, David Haynes and his JS editorial board have not learned a thing, and with all of the evidence against Walker they must be considered uneducable. And an editorial board that cannot learn from and apply incontrovertible evidence, such as the job-loss data, is incontrovertibly ideological.

    And that makes the editorial board useless in abdicating its responsibity that comes with the freedoms of the press from the First Amendment.

  6. Despite its apparent superficial dissatisfaction with Governor Walker, MJS made every effort to provide support for the Governor in the recall with this article:

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/barrett-again-unleashes-on-walker-1q57592-149398285.html

    Despite the headline and the supposed angle being coverage of Democratic talking points from last night’s Democratic Founder’s Day Dinner…MJS made every effort to provide ‘equal time’ through out the article and provide Walker’s campaign a favorable platform.

  7. BTW: I just realized the link says barrett again unleashes…but the article also has Falk unleashing and Ben Sparks (Rep Party mouthpiece) unleashing.

    But the two other Dem candidates once again get nearly nada: “Long-shot candidates state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) and Secretary of State Doug La Follette also made their pitches to the crowd.”

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