but not by the margins earlier predicted. It’s a funny thing how much the margins in Wisconsin tend to vary.  It’s also a funny thing how much late counts in Milwaukee and Madison tend to play a role in how votes go. Wisconsin’s electoral votes always seem up for grabs, and always seem to go to the Democratic candidate by a very narrow margin after late results from Milwaukee and Madison, sometimes exceeding in number the number of registered voters from those locations.ÂÂ
To some Wisconsinites, this has been a cause for concern.  But Governor Doyle, siding with those who believe that production of official identification is a terrible imposition on the citizen who wishes to vote (it being so important to him or her), refuses to give in to the forces of totalitarianism.
Bully, Doyle.  Bully for you!ÂÂ
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 8:39 pm #
It was when they got the automated bottlecapper it all went to hell really.
Comment by Dan Collins on 2/19 @ 8:40 pm #
The what?
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 8:44 pm #
schlemeel, schlemazel, Dan. It’s not like my knowledge of Wisconsin is encyclopedic.
Comment by Dan Collins on 2/19 @ 8:46 pm #
They make Harley-Davidson there, you know.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 8:50 pm #
I didn’t know that. My new brother-in-law, well, later this week he will be, his son works for them. I don’t think he’s coming to the wedding though. Like as not I’ll never meet him. I wonder if he lives in Wisconsin. You never know – Christmas and all that.
Comment by Dan Collins on 2/19 @ 8:53 pm #
Cool. I’m drunk!
Comment by Rob Crawford on 2/19 @ 8:58 pm #
Now, I’ve never been to Milwaukee, but I have been to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Dells, Madison, and quite a few points in between. But the things I remember from there are:
o cheese curds
o Aztlan
o Man Mound
o a horse-drawn manure spreader
o a restaurant advertising the “Butter Burger”
o cheese curds
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 9:02 pm #
Oh. I forgotted. I has to go to Lake Geneva this year. It will my first Wisconsin experience ever. I was at a bookstore and I looked for a guidebook and all I found was that I need to keep an eye out so I can watch the mail girls not fall into the water. I’m so psyched.
Comment by Dumbocrats are Idiots on 2/19 @ 9:12 pm #
tee hee
Comment by Moron Pundit on 2/19 @ 9:13 pm #
I voted for Clinton… did all I could… I don’t think I’ve ever been more concerned as a voter than now… with the Messiah poised to take the election… and put the nail in.
Comment by MayBee on 2/19 @ 9:20 pm #
Is Obama going to keep talking until Hawaii returns come in?
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 9:21 pm #
Oh. Moron your post is newsy…
I didn’t hear that part, NPR musta cut away. Did he mention anything about surveillance?
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:35 pm #
It’s not like my knowledge of Wisconsin is encyclopedic.
BEACHBALLS !!! ;
Comment by B Moe on 2/19 @ 9:37 pm #
The main thing I remember about Wisconsin was playing a show at a club in Milwaukee with a teenage ska band as the opening act. Apparently there was a Mod scene going on there at the time and as we were hanging out waiting to go on all these little high school girls were glaring at us snarling “You’re rockers, aren’t you? We hate rockers!” in really bad Cockney accents. Pretty surreal, even for someone living a completely surreal lifestyle at the time.
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:40 pm #
@ #8
Nishi-speak; OMFG!!!
Where I sit, I could spit.
And a Bro’s Big Boat.
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:43 pm #
With water-wings the size of ears.
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:45 pm #
It’s the law.
Comment by B Moe on 2/19 @ 9:46 pm #
And also there are billboards for Tommy somebodies water skiing thrill show at the Wisconsin Dells about every quarter mile on the Interstates. Hard to believe, but we never stopped to watch.
Comment by B Moe on 2/19 @ 9:47 pm #
http://www.tommybartlett.com/
Comment by Raoul Ortega on 2/19 @ 9:50 pm #
We have the same phenomena here in the Upper Left Washington, where it always seems that King County waits until every other county reports,and then, magically, they have just enough margin for the Dem candidate to get over the top. Although, as in ‘004’s election for governor, it took a couple of recounts and lots of magicly appearing ballots to get it right…
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 9:51 pm #
That’s what it is. The mail girls are on this boat. On a lake. There’s two of them. They are young and athletic. The boat travels along the docks or something, but the thing is see, the boat never stops. The girls must run up the docks to deliver the mail and run back and leap like little nubile gazelles back onto the boat as it is receding. They leap, and it is given unto them that they never fall short. Mostly. In Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, it is a great honor. Only two are chosen. They alone shall deliver the mail to the good people along the lake and stand against the forces of, um, nonmailyness.
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:53 pm #
playing a show
Ca?
BECAUSE OF THE OLD STOMPING GROUNDS !!!
Comment by daleyrocks on 2/19 @ 9:56 pm #
Hillary made a campaign stop at the Brat Stop, another landmark close to the Cheese Curtain separating Illinois and Wisconsin.
Comment by guinsPen on 2/19 @ 9:57 pm #
The Wisconsin Dells is (are?) distinct from Lake Geneva.
Comment by B Moe on 2/19 @ 9:59 pm #
I don’t remember the year for sure, 93 to 95 most likely, I think the bar was called Toads or something similar. The ska band was really good, just really young and not very compatible crowdwise.
Comment by Education Guy on 2/19 @ 10:01 pm #
Alpine Valley Performing Arts Center. You wouldn’t think a concert venue would make a state worth visiting, but you’d be wrong.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 10:01 pm #
Wiskansin. It’s all about how you market yourself.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 10:02 pm #
Which, we’re back to Obama.
Comment by Education Guy on 2/19 @ 10:04 pm #
Well Obama did make me a mixed tape and help me move a sofa, so really I’m happy for him.
Comment by JD on 2/19 @ 10:04 pm #
BMoe – Oh, you do not know what you missed, the water skiing show is something everyone should experience/endure. My folks went to Marquette, and any state that is the home to Harley, Culvers butter burgers, and the Ho-Chunk casino cannot be all bad.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/19 @ 10:06 pm #
#15
its viral….soon u will all be doin it
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/19 @ 10:10 pm #
wow….sean hannity is waxin rapturous over obama.
it must be a sign.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/19 @ 10:11 pm #
or a portent…or sumpin.
Comment by Education Guy on 2/19 @ 10:14 pm #
Sean Hannity has hair that would give Silky’s fantastic do a complex.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 10:40 pm #
Sean Hannity must want Clinton defeated? I can see that. He talks a lot. I mean a lot a lot, radio and tv and speeches, so I can see him wanting to not have to talk about her anymore. Much less at least the next five or so years. People forget ow little impact the media talky people on the right really had during the Clinton years. Feckless. Not really that they’ll have better luck with Obama, but at least they can, you know, hope.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 10:44 pm #
*how* – also Obama would mean a lot of the people that get booked now would be not as in demand – a lot of the Clinton hangers on have been doing the representing all through Bush. It’s got to get stale.
Comment by Whatadumbass on 2/19 @ 11:25 pm #
Hey Dan, you’re featured in a photo over at:
[Link removed by Jeff. I haven't thought about that sad husk in months. Do NOT link to any site associated with her. The courts can only do so much.]
Second post from the top. Teh crazee is strong in that one.
Comment by Cinna on 2/19 @ 11:26 pm #
Hmm. Appears as though margins map on to predictions pretty tightly.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/19 @ 11:30 pm #
Yeah, but Hick still doesn’t have as many delegates as Romney. Loser.
Comment by Sean M. on 2/20 @ 12:29 am #
For the first time in her adult life, Michelle is proud of the Cheeseheads.
Comment by MlR on 2/20 @ 1:02 am #
Nice post, Dan.
Comment by Rusty on 2/20 @ 6:20 am #
Lake Geneva is not truly representative of Wisconsin since most of the home owners are from Illinois. They do have a nice observatory there.People tend to forget that. And very much ruralness, in Wisconsin . With good fishing. I spent a night in jail in Kenosha once. And once in Richland Center too.
Comment by Moron Pundit on 2/20 @ 9:00 am #
Hey, I’m not the only one that noticed McCain simply attacking Obama in that speech. He didn’t exactly mention Huckabee except to give him a little reach around.
Politics is my favorite sport and McCain taking all the easy shots at Obama just makes me happy. Anyone taking any shots at him makes me happy, actually.
He just passed Al Gore as the most dangerous man in America.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/20 @ 9:10 am #
Yeah but I checked and he hadn’t made a point of the surveillance issue. That’s disappointing, but maybe he has his reasons. Could be that he doesn’t want to get involved in what to independents just looks like bickering.
Comment by alppuccino on 2/20 @ 9:23 am #
I like the strip club analogy for Obama. He comes out, shakes his bum, licks his own nipple, and picks up a rolled up dollar with his quim, and you say, “Damn, that was an emotional appeal to those who need hope and thirst for change!” So then he comes out on the next round and you say, “Oh, she’s the one that licks her nipple. Let’s go.”
Comment by Dasher on 2/20 @ 9:58 am #
guinsPen “The Wisconsin Dells is (are?) distinct from Lake Geneva.”
The Dells are about 130 Miles NW of Lake Geneva.
Comment by David on 2/20 @ 11:27 am #
Don’t forget same-day voter registration. I’m certain that, though, with the border fence between Wisconsin and Illinois, that absolutely NO Chicago Democrats would EVER make it up to fraudulently vote. Never. Voter fraud? Preposterous.
Comment by Radish on 2/20 @ 1:30 pm #
I live in Milwaukee. Same-day voter registration–in the 2006 primary, 1/3 of the voter-registration cards sent to people who registered at the polling location to vote in the Democrat primary were returned as undeliverable. Draw your own conclusions.
I’ve considered registering my cat to vote (register by mail, vote absentee). No one will ever to demand proof that someone named “Reggie”, who receives mail at my address, is an actual human eligible to vote…
Pingback by Feingold: "I voted for Barack Obama" [Dan Collins] on 2/23 @ 12:54 pm #
[...] at The Nation.Which is cool, I suppose, given the number of Obama supporters from Illinois who probably crossed the state line into Wisconsin to vote for Feingold, that’s probably fair. Posted by Dan Collins @ 12:54 pm | Trackback Share [...]
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