Obama Doesn’t Show in WI, But Asks For Money Post-Walker Win

I was thinking about what it meant that President Obama didn’t get involved in the Wisconsin Governor recall election today.  Obama reinforced the conclusion I came to: Obama cares about Obama in 2012.  Period.  No other candidate or issue is really on his radar screen: his reelection is all that matters.

All one need look at is this from an email sent by the Obama campaign this afternoon:

Republican Governor Scott Walker and his allies outspent the Democratic challenger nearly EIGHT to ONE — and one of the most unpopular governors in the country managed to hold on.

[...]

Please donate $15 or more to support President Obama and make sure people, not special interests, decide this election.

Obama didn’t stump for Walker’s Democratic challenger in the past month – in much the same way that Obama let 2010 slip by without getting engaged in races that would make a difference to his agenda.  As a result, Wisconsin is still led by a deeply unpopular right-winger and the recall election lead-up to the validated the right’s approach to burying opponents in money.

After refusing to stand up to the right in Wisconsin, Obama wants to use the election results to fundraise off of me and millions of other Americans.  That might be considered good politics in the insular world of D.C. politics, but it’s bad politics in my book.  I’ll continue to donate to and work for local candidates, thank you very much Jim Messina.  Obama and other establishment Democrats aren’t truly interested in getting money out of politics.  They’re interested in getting reelected so they stay in power.

Frustrated Voters Might Get Buyer’s Remorse Soon

With newly-elected Republican Teabagger Governors in Wisconsin and Ohio, the Midwest might have voted itself decades’ worth of future economic heartache.  The new governors want to make good on their campaign promises to stop high-speed rail projects.

A Milwaukee-Madison link was to be completely paid for, but Gov.-elect Scott Walker, in typical Republican fashion, wants the money wasted on roads instead.  The grant money can’t be spent on roads, however.  The intent of high-speed rail stimulus was to build … high-speed rail.  I know, it’s a big shock.

Connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati?  It’s one of the “dumbest ideas” Gov.-elect John Kasich has ever heard of.  Apparently, keeping Ohioans firmly in the 1950s as the rest of the world runs in the 2010′s isn’t one of those “dumbest ideas”.

I understand that upper-Midwesterners have had a rough go of it for decades now.  Corporations have chosen $1/week jobs in undeveloped nations instead of paying Americans living wages for a couple of generations.  The solution, however, wasn’t electing more of the ideological zealots that got them into today’s terrible economic mess in the first place.  Identifying and strongly supporting liberal Democrats should have been part of the answer.  Punishing pro-corporate Dems instead of pro-people Dems was, is and will remain the wrong thing to do.

I share the dissatisfaction with under-performing and anti-American CorporateDems.  In 2012, Democrats across the country need to make a very strong push for liberals and progressives who want to put the American people first.  Republican Teabaggers have a lot of cute sound-bites.  But make no mistake about it, they want power only to further expand the difference between the richest 1% of Americans and the rest of us.  Ohio and Wisconsin have set themselves back even further from actual economic recovery.  Instead of helping themselves out a few years from now, any relief won’t be felt for more than half a decade from now, at the earliest.  It’s not up to your politicians, Dems.  It’s up to you.  You need to take the lead in setting and keeping this country on the right track.

[Update]: I forgot about the $3 Billion (!) for the Hudson River Project that Gov. Chris Christie threw into the gutter.  Oh, and Gov.-elect Rick Scott of Florida doesn’t want $2.5 Billion the feds have authorized for high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando.  Tell you what, the rest of us will gladly take these funds and put them to good use in our states.  Numerous rail projects are possible in Colorado.  Any funds from the federal government would help get those projects underway.  Our economies would benefit as a result while your economies wouldn’t.  If that’s what you want to do in order to maintain some ridiculous notion of proper economic policy, by all means, keep rejecting funds.

Meteor Blades, among others, picked up on the very same notion I did.