Here’s a few interesting takes on the results of the 2010 midterm elections, both here in Wisconsin and nationally:
- Cindy Kilkenny at Fairly Conservative says Scott Walker is all out of excuses now that he has Republican majorities in the State Assembly and State Senate:
I’m not sure Scott Walker can function without excuses. I have never seen supporters so willing to make those same excuses for a candidate.
It will be interesting to see who Scott Walker tries to blame if the state’s budget deficit proves more difficult to balance than he expects, or if he fails to create the 1,200 jobs per week that he’ll need to create in order to meet his campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs.
- And to put things into proper perspective for all those liberals who think the world is going to come to an end and are threatening to move to Canada or Minnesota or anywhere but here, just remember it wasn’t too long ago (2 years, to be exact) that some Republicans thought they had lost their ability to compete with Democrats in the Great Lakes states, the West Coast, the mid-Atlantic states, and the west.
- There also might be a little bit of a silver lining to be found in the results from November 2, as young adults bucked the anti-Democratic trend, voting for Democrats by a wide margin:
- 18-29-year-olds voted for Democrats over Republicans by 16 points (56-40) with 4% responding: “Other/No answer”
- 18-24-year-olds voted for Democrats over Republicans by 19 points (58-39) with 3% responding: “Other/No answer”
While those numbers are certainly encouraging, the trick for Democrats will be keeping those young adults engaged and active in the political process, and then keeping them energized enough that they’ll vote consistently.
- And finally here’s some pretty amazing exit polling breaking down why people voted the way they did:
- Republicans are more unpopular than Democrats, yet they still voted GOP;
- 35 percent believed Wall Street was to blame for the terrible economy, yet they still voted for the GOP. (56-42, to be exact).
- 31 percent of voters wanted the new health care law expanded, yet 14 percent of them voted Republican. 30% want the law kept he same as it is now, and 30% of them voted Republican.
I think there are numerous things that can be done to make sure the young voters vote.
* Pass legislation that matters to them (its shameful that DADT is still a policy),
* let people know what your doing as much as possible. When you cut 95% of the peoples taxes and people still think you raised taxes then there is a problem. They need to be as loud or louder than fox news.
8 fair or not, I think Mike Tate and tim Kaine should resign.
Another problem is the American public tends to punish politicians for doing the right thing in historic votes. Just look at the drubbing the democrats toook after passing civil rights legislation.
Here is another example:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/us/politics/04judges.html?_r=1
One of the real problems is Fox News. They distort the reality of the world to pursue their own worldview that just happens to support only one political point of view – that of the GOP. With many Americans failing to spend the time educating themselves on government, politics and economics; they lose sight of what is really happening and who is really behind the problems that they encounter every day.
With Darrell Issa planning to force the Obama Administration to respond to hundreds of letters and answer to the many subpoenas that they will have in the works, we can see what the GOP’s game plan is – to tear down the administration to make it seem so impotent that the only option Americans will see is the GOP – the party with no governing plan or belief in making America better for all but their wealthy corporate and Wall Street benefactors.
Yep, also figured the “blame FoxNews” line would be part of the post-election spin. Is it then fair to blame the rest of the media for Obama since they fawned over him? Chris Matthews with that tingle up his leg and all.
Young people lean left, old people lean right. Also, this just in, the earth isn’t flat. Film at 11.
You can do whatever you want to try & further pad your numbers there & entice younger voters – but they’ll still not get off their butts and vote. There’s no trick to keeping them energized – they won’t vote consistently because they never have. Blips here and there, but if you think you can overcome the apathy of youth, you’re tilting at windmills.
And America is only getting older. This election cycle, most of the Democrats only appeal to them was their old and just plain dishonest scare tactic of “he’s gonna take away your social security.”
Which is probably why Barrett looked relieved, almost happy to have lost in his concession speech. No question about it, Walker’s got a huge task in front of him. The stone was kicked down the road and Doyle and the state legislature made such a mess of the state budget, it’s a herculean task. But he wanted the job, now he’s got it. And with both houses on his side, there will be no excuses. That’s not to say it’s reasonable to expect a miracle which is what wiping out the structural deficit in 4 years would take.
2007-08 (the most recent year with data from all states) Wisconsin had the largest per capital deficit (using GAAP) in the country. In 2008-09, it rose to $2.7 billion. In four years, if Walker can cut that in half, he’ll get my vote for another turn. A lesser, but still substantial improvement – and I’ll think about. But if he kicks the stone down the road too, raids segregated funds without significantly improving the underlying financials, I’ll be among the first calling to kick him out the door.
President Obama was expected to solve the recession in less than two years…but Governor Elect Walker is already being provided with an excuse to not fix the state deficit in four years?
The non-logic and hipocrisy being expressed is staggering. Obama continues to use President Bush as an excuse and liberals are fine with that. Scott Walker has not yet been sworn in and a clearly identified Doyle bag o’ sheet is headed his way. I expect liberals to give Governor Walker the same opportunity as they give Obama.
I be one of them honestly to give him a chance that conservatives gave to Obama – Two years. I except results. If he produces them? Color me surprised.
However, who knows? Maybe he might straighten out, prove me wrong, and not do any shady deals, dodge responsibility, and so on if he knows what is good for him. (To be fair, I’m not a fan of Doyle either.)
He has a lot of work ahead of him with the spending that Tommy Thompson, Scott McCallum, and Jim Doyle left behind in their own ways. If he makes it worse? I will call him out for it just as the same I did for Doyle.
( Tony Earl was pretty cool though. He helped restore the state following one of the worst economic predicaments in state history. :/ )
…Even with a preview button I fail.
I’ll be*
Yes T., I agree. When we see Walker’s first budget we will know if he’s headed in the right direction or just serving up more of the same. Do I expect the budget deficit to vanish entirely? No, but his budget should point us in that direction. Doyle had 8 years to fix the deficit that was handed him, but I think he was still blaming McCallum last year!
I believe the republicans gave Obama about 1 week to get unemployment down and deficit under control. I think the yeven blamed him for october/November/December and January before he was sworn in.
Remember when he went and met with the republicans and made Paulie look silly. That was the point he nailed them on.