In what’s supposed to be a good year for Republican candidates, it seems the best advice you can give to a few them is to just stay home. Ride the political wave… from your easy chair. Avoid travel. Let Vox Popoli speak for you. Or if you absolutely must go someplace, for the love of God, keep your mouth shut lest you put your foot in it.
The more Terry Moulton speaks, the more his party bosses must wince in Madison.
Business trips have taken us out of the area for the last week or so, so we've missed the newest political TV ads. Two have stood out.
In this first one, Julie Lassa has one of Sean Duffy's former co-workers in the Ashland District Attorney's office quietly take an ax to Mr. Duffy's record as DA. It's just brutal.
The first candidate forum in West Central Wisconsin happened tonight.
So, what do you do when only half the candidates show up?
Ask the questions anyway and let the silence stand for your answer, I guess.
This forum was for the candidates in the 68th and 93rd AD and 23rd & 31st SD - basically Eau Claire and Chippewa Counties. All the Democratic candidates showed up. None of the Republicans could be bothered it seems.
We just love Twitter. Didn't at first. Figured it was just a bunch of people proclaiming what they had for lunch in 140 characters or less. But some of the state-wide candidates twitter feeds are fantastic - Scott Walker's is a must read. Ron Johnson, Inc's isn't bad either.
The best part is learning to decipher their true meaning. Take this one from Terry Moulton:
The long slow death-spiral of local right wing talker stations like Eau Claire's WAYY now includes a return to the oldies tunes that once made AM radio this country's dominant media force... half a century ago. You know, before FM, stereo, compact discs, surround sound, satellite radio, iPods, build-your-own Internet radio sites like Pandora... everything else that has rendered stations like WAYY less relevant than your Grandma's ringer washer or (Rush's favorite trope for antique technology) the buggy whip industry.
So what do you do when you’re fighting an uphill battle to win a state senate seat and you’re name recognition outside 3 miles of your home is in the toilet? If you’re two-time loser Terry Moulton running for the 23rd SD, you buy commercial time for your business hobby business (Which is it? Terry's been running for office for 10 years now), Mouldy’s Archery and Tackle.
Big Political Cheese was created because there’s a lot of politickin’ going on beyond Madison, Milwaukee and the AM radio dial. And this week’s Northern Wisconsin State Fair proves it.
It's now officially summertime of an even-numbered year. That means it’s time for the political noise machines to screech back to life.
I’ll admit political machines can occasionally be entertaining and sometimes produce something positive. For the most part the output is just whining noises, half-truths and tired spin trying to find anything that will stick to their opponents.
One of our jobs here at Big Political Cheese is to examine the cacophonous whine and provide a useful translation for the masses that, you know, have lives.
Pat Kreitlow