Bureaucracy.

Via DrewM, a story Kafka didn’t live long enough to write. Just one of many to come, per Ron Johnson’s new Victims of Government Project. The series will perform oversight of the cost and impact of unnecessary, ineffective, and excessive federal regulations. Johnson also invited anyone who has been dealing with excess regulation to submit [...]

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Choices

Did you have Wisconsin in your bracket? No… I don’t mean your Sweet Sixteen. I’m talking about the pool to predict the Republican most likely to tick off the entire political world in the shortest period of time. If you did, then Scott Walker may just be your golden ticket. Get ready for the battle [...]

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We did it

One story you might have missed from the last week was the musings of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as he reflected on how the nation can wrestle with its current problems. This isn’t brain surgery, as Ben Carson might say. It’s the simple observation that where Washington has failed miserably for several years now, the [...]

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Chance favors the prepared mind.

We hear plenty from gun-control advocates that firearms don’t prevent or stop attacks, and how they’re more likely to end up being used against victims instead. Tell that to Charlie Blackmore, who recently acquired a concealed-carry permit in Wisconsin after the legislature recently made them legal. Blackmore, a Marine Corps veteran, wasn’t being attacked himself, [...]

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Civility.

A three-year investigation of Wisonsin Gov. Scott Walker and aides closed for good today with no charges against Walker. Just like that, the lengthy John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s aides and associates is over. Nearly three years after the probe was launched, retired Appeals Court Judge Neal Nettesheim signed an order shutting down [...]

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On.

There’s plenty to criticize when it comes to the GOP’s dismal efforts to reach and persuade voters, so exceptions to the recent disquieting rule ought to be highlighted, celebrated and replicated.  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is one such exception, and a shining one at that.  Walker’s resounding re-election in the face of a petty, statist [...]

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Winning.

The drama has long since died down, but there are still ongoing challenges to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-balancing and public-sector union-disempowering reforms, as big labor will certainly use even its dying breaths to fight for their right to party. The legal battles will certainly continue, but Gov. Walker scored a win when a federal [...]

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Pot calling the kettle sedentary.

From our friend Charlie Spiering at the Washington Examiner comes this clip of a former Michigan governor whose state suffered a net out migration and lost 630,000 jobs during her tenure asking a white multi-millionaire how to keep rich white guys from destroying the middle-class economies of the Midwest. Oh, and there’s the bit about [...]

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Jury Rig

This is a somewhat troubling question which I first noticed being addressed by Dr. James Joyner over at Outside the Beltway. He’s talking about a definitely hyperbolic entry from Mother Jones which accuses the GOP of trying to rig the electoral college through various acts of villainy in advance of the 2016 elections. The basic [...]

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Wonkin' out.

Even though the Romney/Ryan team didn’t manage to turn Wisconsin’s presidential vote around for Republicans, Paul Ryan hedged his bets and did win reelection to his House seat yesterday, and has confirmed that he’ll be returning to Congress. It’s pretty painful thinking about the ways in which Paul Ryan might’ve used the second-highest office in [...]

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270.

What follows will be old hat to most readers, who’ve been wargaming paths to 270 for six months now, but I’m thinking it might be useful to casual readers who are stopping by tonight and tomorrow because their interest in the election is peaking. Simple question: Which states does Romney need to win to clinch [...]

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Nevermind

Wisconsin is projecting one of their highest turnouts in recent memory on Tuesday and the polls show it to be yet another nail biter. Polling places will very likely be crowded, so election workers will need to be up to speed to avoid problems in getting everything put together and keeping things running smoothly. With [...]

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Portents

We’re coming down to the wire in the 2012 election, and being a presidential year most eyes are trained on the race to the finish between Mitt Romney and President Obama. But control of both chambers in the legislative branch are on the line as well, and as we all know, Congress can do a [...]

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Oh my.

Lefties are snarking on Twitter that McCain did some late campaigning in Pennsylvania too and it worked out smashingly for him. Right, but McCain was down nearly seven points nationally at the time. There was little opportunity cost to playing a longshot instead of spending a few extra hours in a swing state because there [...]

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Momentum shift?

NBC and the Wall Street Journal, in partnership with a few more final polls from some second-tier swing states that Barack Obama won in 2008 but might lose in 2012.  The Marist polls gives Obama some good news in Iowa, but warnings about New Hampshire and traditionally-safe Wisconsin.  All three polls suggest that momentum remains [...]

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Expanding the map.

Via Mark Halperin and Jim Geraghty, who points out that Detroit’s TV market doesn’t reach Ohio. This is all about defending Michigan, which would have seemed crazy a month ago but now, in a world where The One is under 50 percent in Oregon, makes lots of sense. This is, after all, a state capable [...]

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Dead heat.

This is the first time Romney’s been at least even with O in any Wisconsin poll since August, when he led by a point. The state’s not technically a must-win, but it’s mighty close: If Ohio falls through, Romney will need Wisconsin and New Hampshire (or Iowa) to put him over the finish line. And [...]

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Plan B.

New from Rasmussen, it’s the second poll in as many days showing Romney up two points in NH. Of the last eight polls taken in the state, he leads in four, is tied in two more, trails by a single point in another, and the last is an outlier. (Rasmussen’s last poll of NH, taken [...]

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Uh oh.

Remember that big GOTV infrastructure left over from Scott Walker’s resounding victory in the recall election, just three months ago?  The infrastructure that was supposed to grease the skids for a Republican victory in Wisconsin for both Mitt Romney and Tommy Thompson, the latter in the Senate race that replaces retiring Democrat Herb Kohl?  Today’s [...]

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Again.

We’ve been here before, remember? A left-wing judge struck down the law on a procedural technicality in May of last year. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a month later. Bet heavily that this will be reversed too, just because I suspect America’s not quite ready to start throwing up constitutional roadblocks to fiscal reforms while [...]

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Agenda journalism fail.

Are 60% of Milwaukee’s black voters from 2008 missing?  That’s what a study from the New Organizing Institute claims, which estimates that as many as 160,000 black voters in the city from the last presidential election can no longer be found.  Slate reports on this claim without any real skepticism or scrutiny, after noting NPR’s [...]

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Sample swings.

Those swing state polls continue to narrow for Barack Obama.  While a new CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac series on three key states show Obama in the lead, in two of the three the races have dropped into a virtual tie.  Even in the third, the sample suggests that Mitt Romney may be closer than the poll states: New CBS [...]

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Change.

We need some good news. Second look at stealing the midwest right out from under Obama’s nose? PPP’s first Wisconsin poll since Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate finds him taking a small lead over Barack Obama in the state, 48-47. That represents a 7 point shift from PPP’s last look at [...]

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Purple.

Rasmussen has it 48/47 for Romney among likely voters, CNN has it 49/45 for Obama among registered voters. Samples of registered voters do tend to skew more blue than actual turnout on election day, so those numbers jibe nicely. The state really is a toss up right now, it seems. If we end up losing [...]

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What could have happened?

Three weeks ago, Barack Obama had a narrow three-point lead in Wisconsin over Mitt Romney, 49/46.  In a poll taken yesterday of likely voters, Rasmussen notes that the race has shifted subtly.  Now Romney has the edge in a virtual tie over Obama, 48/47: The presidential race in Wisconsin is a little tighter this month [...]

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