Baldwin’s blunder
October 4, 2012
We thought Tommy Thompson outperformed Tammy Baldwin in Friday night’s U.S. Senate debate. Then we saw a Madison Capital Times headline saying there was “no clear winner” and realized we’d been too tough on Tommy. If the Cap Times says nobody won, it means the Liberal got blown out.
Both candidates said pretty much what we’d expect them to say. Tommy emphasized his success cutting taxes and creating jobs. Tammy rolled out the standard fibs about tax breaks for the rich and wrecking Medicare.
But in one revealing statement, Baldwin inadvertently spelled out why Wisconsin voters shouldn’t want her in the Senate.
Her relentlessly negative theme is that Tommy’s changed and is no longer your friend. Friday night she took it one step too far, urging the audience to look past what Thompson did as Governor.
Oops.
In those eleven words, Tammy Baldwin unmistakably admitted she believes Wisconsin likes Tommy Thompson because of what he did as a state elected official.
As a smug Madison Liberal, odds are she didn’t bother thinking it through. You just aren’t supposed to notice that Tammy was a state elected official too, while Tommy was Governor, and she opposed him at every turn.
She expects you to simply miss the fact that she deliberately positioned herself against the job-creating policies that made Tommy one of Wisconsin’s most popular governors and by far its longest-serving.
This is a blunder. It should be a fatal one except for the comparatively tiny number of people viewing the debate.
Tammy Baldwin insists liking what Tommy Thompson did as Governor is no reason to make him a Senator. Now she needs to explain why on earth voters should instead elect someone who fought him every step of the way.
About Wisconsin Club for Growth
