Analysis: Messy Wisconsin recalls bode ill for 2012 election

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/10/us-wisconsin-recalls-analysis-idUSTRE77972W20110810

By David Bailey

LA CROSSE, Wis | Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:23pm EDT

LA CROSSE, Wis (Reuters) - A day after Wisconsin held the largest round of recall elections in U.S. history, analysts parsing the bruising, expensive and inconclusive battles have a gloomy prediction for the rest of the country.

Get used to it, the 2012 national election will be nasty.

Politics, said Mordecai Lee, a governmental affairs professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, is now "a battle of inches, it is a battle that never ends, it is a battle to the death."

Wisconsin's recalls, and the fight earlier this year over the union rights of public-sector workers that triggered them, have highlighted the wide gulf that separates Republican and Democrat voters nationwide.

The results, which neither party can claim as a clear-cut victory, have also exposed the lack of stability and predictability in U.S. government -- a reason S&P cited last week in downgrading the U.S. AAA credit rating.

Republicans won four of the six Wisconsin recall elections on Tuesday, just enough to cling to a state Senate majority.

"What we saw yesterday was basically a very divisive election to conclude a very divisive recall process in response to a very divisive set of policies enacted by the new Republican governor and legislature in Wisconsin," said Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political science professor.

FULL story at link.

[undeterred]

1. The folks in Madison didn't get to vote.

And we will hand the GOP a clear cut LOSS in January.

[N7Shepard]

6. Nor did the vast majority of Milwaukee proper

[Enrique]

2. i think i'll be in the mood for a nasty election in 2012

let's see if we can be as nasty as they are.

[rzemanfl]

9. We have the Repuke convention hereabouts, come on down

and get nasty. Unfortunately I think it comes a bit before I am old enough for it to be a felony under state law for someone to hit me. Maybe not, gotta google the dates.

ON EDIT. I was wrong, I'll be 65 before it starts. Plus I can "stand my ground," so if some Republican felon hits me, I can shoot the fucker.

[leveymg]

3. It's like Summer, 1916 in the beautiful French countryside.

[xchrom]

4. Interesting. Nt

[Scuba]

5. This is wrong. It says...

..."Republicans won four of the six Wisconsin recall elections on Tuesday, just enough to cling to a state Senate majority."



A more accurate statement would be "Republicans lost two seats they had held to Democrats, narrowing their majority to a single seat."

[PCIntern]

8. coulda been written even 'woise':

"Republicans, as expected, maintained their stranglehold on the political landscape in the state as well as in most other states not dominated by Communists."

[baldguy]

7. Imagine when 1/3 of all GOP incumbants are defeated in 2012.