Two main reasons Walker won: Money and Incumbency

[RBInMaine]

The Pukes FLOODED the state with ads and had TONS of money for their GOTV operations.

Also, too many Indies and even some Dems decided that as the incumbent he deserved to finish his term. They did not want to undo a previous election. They did not want to start that kind of precedent.

That said, the people of WI have voted and have to live with it. Sorry though for those who worked so hard to get rid of the bastard. You did all you could with what you had.

[HereSince1628]

1. Well that reasoning absolves all possible dem failure. We probably shouldn't take that approach.

Dems probably made mistakes. We, YOU NON WISCONSINITES, need to know what we could have done better as well as what we did correctly.

It's too our disadvantage to think that Dems in Wisconsin couldn't have done things differently and better.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Feel free to enlighten us.

I think that the OP was just trying to put a good spin on the outcome. I think that whenever there's a loss, there's plenty of blame to go around I suppose.

Just remember that there's still another opportunity in November to get some more Dems elected to the state legislature- to tie Walker's hands and help protect the state from furthering Walker's regressive agenda.

[HereSince1628]

5. The post-action analysis can't be done immediately. What can be done now is to guard against denial

It's very easy and comforting to think this was simply done to us. We must guard against that.

It very probable that what happened is because we didn't or somehow couldn't do some things that resulted in a different outcome.
The identification of just what those things are isn't an easy task, it'll take months and possibly years to work it out.

BUT people who want to stop the corporatists MUST figure out how to do what we didn't or couldn't. Denying that things could have been different is to deny the next state that faces this sort of heavy handed tyranny of the corporatists the opportunity to learn from our costly and painful experience.

[HereSince1628]

6. Thing is what seems obvious now, really may not be so overarching.

If we are to ready to accept that we did nothing wrong, but were victims, we change entirely the course of the next response.

The next response needs to be more effective. It needs to better understand what we did not. It needs support from solutions we did not envision or implement.

[RBInMaine]

4. Sure, but I was just going at the two over-arching dynamics: the money and the incumbency.

[SoutherDem]

2. I too have heard of some who didn't like Walker but felt he deserved a full term

I just hope Wisconsin survives the last two years.