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"  Okay, I love Wisconsin. I spent five glorious years there \u2014 four in pursuit of the degree that Scott Walker had to chea... er... failed to attain, and one more trying to elect the late Mo Udall president of the United States. I am not happy with the results of Tuesday&amp;#039;s recall, not one little bit. However, and this is a big however, I am not running for the United States Senate, so, please, for the love of almighty god, Tammy Baldwin, ix-nay on the iserableness-may: &amp;quot;There is a huge spirit of disappointment in Wisconsin right now,&amp;quot; Baldwin acknowledged in an interview with TPM after her speech. &amp;quot;A recall&amp;#039;s a rare and unique thing. I know that a lot of people are looking at the results, and saying this is a referendum on whether we like recalls or not, not on the candidates before the voters.&amp;quot; Baldwin called the recall a &amp;quot;grassroots movement that wasn&amp;#039;t going to be stopped&amp;quot; \u2014 and a movement that wasn&amp;#039;t exclusively aligned with the Democratic party. That being said, did national Democrats do enough? Baldwin said Obama&amp;#039;s campaign in Wisconsin was highly engaged in the recall, and the state benefited from visits by former President Bill Clinton and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. &amp;quot;Do we wish more could have been done? Obviously,&amp;quot; Baldwin said. &amp;quot;It was two days ago. I just think we&amp;#039;re still taking a deep breath.&amp;quot; No, dammit. The answer to the question is that the people who sweated blood to make the recall election possible are the heart and soul of the Democratic party. You are proud to ask for their support, and you hope that they&amp;#039;ll recognize the stakes and work as hard for you as they did in their efforts to rid the state of its governor. You admire their spirit and drive. You wish everyone in America had their passion. I now officially have grown impatient with the argument that the recall was a bad idea to begin with, especially when it comes from &amp;quot;national&amp;quot; Democratic leaders who declined to put any of their own skin in the game. There&amp;#039;s too much of it coming from the usual suspects who believe that politics would be much more fun to be around if it weren&amp;#039;t for those pesky voters. The recall provision exists in Wisconsin law not as a kind of impeachment-by-other-means, but as a direct response to the depredations of corporate wealth upon the political commonwealth that were rife the last time we had a Gilded Age. That so many Wisconsinites forgot this is a tribute to seven months of television advertising and the fact that we don&amp;#039;t teach civics any more. It can be argued that, in retrospect, the recall should have been limited to attempting to regain control of the state senate, but, pragmatically, and taking everything at the time into account, there would have been no recall effort at all without Walker&amp;#039;s name on the ballot. And, for those of you who believe I am too tough on the incumbent president, I present to you the single most hysterical reaction to the Wisconsin results yet produced by anyone anywhere. I would say two things in response: 1) historically, the most recent successful recall of a governor took place in 2003, whereas the last successful &amp;quot;general strike&amp;quot; took place, well, maybe in Oakland in 1946, when a helluva lot more than 10 percent of the private workforce was unionized; and 2) Jesus, pal, get a grip. The recall was a vehicle, nothing more, and, if nothing else, it kept Walker from calling the legislature into special session to do even more damage before the November elections. As a consolation prize, that&amp;#039;s better than a copy of our home game. CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE FROM ON THE GROUND IN WISCONSIN... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14389/wisconsin-recall-2012-9535630/>