Gov. Walker wins big! (But the media don’t want anyone to know it.)

The AP reports that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker defeated his recall challenger Thomas Barrett by 54 to 45 percent. That is a much wider margin than most polls had indicated in the days and weeks before the election. Many of the polls had said that there was just a one or two point margin between them.

Congratulations to Walker, a political leader of undaunted courage, or, alternatively (sorry for the vulgarity, but sometimes vulgarity is appropriate), a mild-mannered Midwesterner with balls of steel. Last year, just installed in office, he challenged the succubus-like power of the public employees unions; the thuggish Wisconsin Democrats did everything but blow up the Wisconsin state capitol to stop him; he held his ground and won. Then, in only the third recall attempt against a state governor in the nation’s history, the Democrats sought to throw him out of office (not for any incompetence or corruption, but simply for doing what he had pledged as a candidate to do), and he won again.

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Joseph E. writes:

55 to 45!

What a bright spot in the gathering gloom.

All is not lost.

Wonder what John Derbyshire will say. He’s been trashing the public sector unions for a long time, pointing out the obvious—that they bargain with the government, which passes all costs on to the taxpayer. This makes them radically different from private sector unions.

I grew up in a very pro-labor household and three of my uncles were shop stewards or union officials. But when I point out Derb’s obvious distinction to “progressive” friends, they willfully refuse to see it. Any attempt to restrain a labor organization, no matter how excessive and destructive its power, is “union-busting” to them.

June 6, 10:09 a.m.

James P. writes:

Walker didn’t win big.

According to the NYT and Washington Post and CNN headlines, he merely “survived”—and the Obama campaign reminds us “how close this contest was.”

Ben M. writes:

The media was grudging in its reporting of Walker’s win. USA Today describes the victory as Walker “surviving” the recall as if he had just barely hung on to scrape through. With 65 percent of the precincts reporting and Walker leading by 14 percent at that point, CNN described the race as “neck and neck” and too tight to call. MSNBC talked about this being an all-nighter as Walker took a 15 percent lead! NBC said the recall was a “replay” of the first election, not noting that it wasn’t exactly a replay but an enhancement as Walker won by a larger margin this time. For most of the evening The Huffington Post characterized the race as “even,” although the majority of the precincts were turning red at an alarming rate on their map.

Finally someone had the guts to spell it out: Amanda Terkel wrote this morning at The Huffingtom Post that “it was a rout.” However CNN had commentators talking about “residue anger” remaining after the election, as if the the electorate had an underlying smoldering fire that had not been put out decisively.

The entire reporting media also made sure the following message from the exit polls got across to the dumb public: those voting for Walker STILL would support Obama in November.

The media did everything it could to tamp down Walker’s triumph including blaming the out-of-state funding for his campaign, as if the individual voter had been boondoggled by external money.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 06, 2012 12:24 AM | Send