On Wisconsin

I doubt too many were surprised at Scott Walker's victory in yesterday's recall election.  When Barack Obama won't appear in your state but only tweet his support, you know he doesn't want to get on board a sinking ship.

Now that it's all over, I hope the people who insisted on a recall are asking if it was worth it.  All the screaming and shouting, all the work, all the ugliness, all the money, and we get another election with practically the same result as the original one.  In fact, I think the annoyance factor with the whole rigmarole helped Walker.

I remember when California had the recall election for Gray Davis.  People felt he was not only doing a bad job, but going back on promises he'd made.  And darned if they didn't kick him out.  Still, is this the way to do things?  Politicians regularly disappoint us, which is why we have regularly scheduled elections.  I'm not that sympathetic to the plight of our leaders, but they face enough pressure to bend to the public will without having to worry that any slip-up could mean they'll be gone as soon as possible.

As for the wider implications of Wisconsin, it's hard to say.  Just because Democrats have been spinning for weeks saying the election doesn't matter (any more, now that we're going to lose) doesn't mean they're wrong.

I doubt very much this means Romney will take Wisconsin. Maybe the state isn't quite as solid blue as once thought, but it sure still leans Obama.  The real question is what does this mean to public unions.  This was where they made a stand.  Where they gave it all they got. And they discovered that even a relatively enlightened state may think they've gone too far.  But it shouldn't be too surprising in an age when even The New York Times editorializes against their pensions.  Of course, if the unions are hurt, it could hurt the Democrats, since they're a major source of funding and if people can opt out of dues, there may not be as much money to go around.

One more question.  Why are exit polls so often misleading?  According to the exit polls in Wisconsin, the race was supposed to be very close, but Walker won by a fairly solid marging.  Something must be wrong in the sampling, but is it due to bad training in pollsters, or just the fact that you can't force people to take these polls so you get incorrect results?