It's just staring us in the face, you know? Ten to one spending ratio, but a much, much narrower victory, and a Senate race victory where the Republicans weren't obsessed with winning.
This race was flooded with corporate money, most of it out of state. This you already know, just as you know that Barrett spent three million to Walkers thirty million. The gradient between votes should be higher.
But is isn't, which tells us this election was pushed by all that spending and media saturation. Walker didn't get that without a ton of people writing checks who will expect gratitude later on. Let's not kid ourselves here: we have a bought election on our hands.
But more to the point, this is a fine way of making this victory a liability for Republicans going forward. Nobody's sympathetic with the rich contributors, and Walker's trying to make this into a referendum on his performance. But at thirty million to three, with his margins, it's obvious he had a lot of help.
We need to characterize this not so much as Walker winning the vote of the people, but Walker's contributors buying the airtime to push the voters into supporting him. We need to make him look weak for accepting the help of an entire nation, for needing thirty million to win such a marginal victory against a relative unknown with far less institutional support.
We need to make this look like an almost come-from behind victory for Barrett, not a come from behind victory for Walker.
In short, we need to make the man look every bit the tool of out-of-state, corporate interests that he actually is, every bit the recipient of a nation's worth of right wing charity, a man who couldn't have won if he had just stuck with supporters in the Badger state.
Remember, folks, this isn't the last election this guy has to face. He faces another in 2014, and we should make it our purpose to make sure that though he survived having Palin's fate inflicted on him (to be a half-term governor), he won't avoid this again. And next time? I'm thinking next time, folks might be a little bit tired of the man, or at least complacent. We had one chance to get him out now, and that didn't work. Let's make sure his next election doesn't go so well.