Not Even Close

In the end, the money prevailed. With the aid of huge amounts of third party "Citizens United" cash and with strong national Republican Party support and cash, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker survived Tuesday's recall election. Republican spent nearly 7 times what Demcrats did with tens of millions coming from out-of-state conservative groups with deep pockets.

And so the Republican governor who gutted public labor union rights, repealed Wisconsin's Equal Pay Act, and turned down Federal stimulus monies for high speed rail was an easy victor. The final vote wasn't even close (53% - 47%).  This happened in spite of the grass roots effort mounted by Wisconsin unions and others to stage the historic recall - with more than 1 million signatures collected for his recall.  (There is one small light in all this: one Republican state senator lost his seat and this should shift control of the Wisconsin Senate to the Democrats.  It's too close too call as of this posting and will probably require a recount.)

With the flood of billionaire and corporate wealth unleashed by Citizens United, the handwriting is on the wall for the November elections.  It's been there since the Tea Party victories in the mid-term elections - the first elections since the democracy-challenged SCOTUS rendered its infamous Citizens United decision.  Combined with the organized voter suppression effort by Republicans in states under their control (including nearly all of the so-called battleground states), this is pointing to an ominous November for Democrats.

Bluntly put: unless the Democrats do a much better job of framing the narrative for the upcoming elections, the short-lived Democratic control of at least a portion of the Federal government is over.

The story is there to be told but it is not getting through.  Just one example: a highway construction bill that would add a couple hundred thousand jobs passed the Senate in March.  Meanwhile the House Republicans have not moved on the bill - probably ensuring that the jobs will not happen in time for the summer construction season if at all.  This means that the economy will not recover as fast as it might.  This in turn adds to the misconception that the Great Recession was Obama's fault and that he hasn't done anything to help it.  Oh yeah - and the population segment that would benefit most from the highway bill - i.e., white males - are the ones most opposed to the Obama Presidency.   Go figure.