GOP Outplaying its Hand in Wisconsin

dailykos.com — I'm not going to sugarcoat it, losing the governor's race in Wisconsin sucked. While we'll crunch the numbers on turnout in a later post, the exit polls point to two major reasons why we weren't able to recall Scott Walker. First, 60 percent of voters thought that recall elections were only appropriate for official misconduct, while 27 percent said "any reason." Another 10 percent said "never"—and those voted for Walker 94-5. Turns out people just didn't like the idea of a recall — something worth filing away as an important lesson learned. Second of all, young people didn't turn out. Only 16 percent of the electorate was 18-29, compared to 22 percent in 2008. Turns out having the recall in the summer, when the universities were out, was among the biggest strategic miscalculations. So given all that, it was interesting to see Republicans pretend Wisconsin will be in play in November.

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