Posted on 10/10/2010 3:59:28 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(A Wisconsin State Journal endorsement!)
Job creation and fixing the state's crippling budget mess must be the top priorities for Wisconsin's next governor.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is the best choice to tackle these difficult tasks.
The State Journal endorses Walker for governor.
Under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, the state has lurched from one budget crisis to another for years now long before the recession ever began.
Chronic budget deficits have distracted Wisconsin leaders from thinking big and devising bold strategies for competitive advantage in the knowledge-based, global economy.
Did the Democrats in control of state government adopt comprehensive school finance reform with incentives to boost performance?
Nope. Just a big favor for the teachers union: repeal of a pay-raise cap without accountability for better results.
Have the Democrats given Wisconsin a modern and more competitive tax structure?
Nope. Wisconsin's property and personal income tax burdens especially on the middle class still rank among the nation's worst.
What about a Commerce Department with laser-like focus on encouraging private business and job growth?
Nope. Five Commerce secretaries in seven years under Doyle with only one out of every 10 Commerce workers focused on business development.
Walker's record as county executive suggests he's much more likely than his Democratic opponent, Tom Barrett, to prioritize private-sector job creation and control spending to fix the budget.
Walker has consistently proposed county budgets that hold down property taxes while seeking efficiencies in county services. He's made tough decisions during tight times, such as trying to close swimming pools with high costs and low attendance. He's pared back county board spending with vetoes.
Since his election in 2002, Walker has made a huge personal sacrifice by giving back $370,000 of his salary to county taxpayers.
Walker's pledge to stop a modern, high-speed passenger train one that's already paid for is disturbing. So is Walker's excessive pandering to social conservatives on issues such as embryonic stem-cell research and abortion.
But Walker is no extremist. The Republican has been repeatedly re-elected in a hugely-Democratic county.
In another election year, we could support Barrett, a likeable and seasoned leader with high character and some interesting ideas.
But not this election. This fall's decision is about jobs and the economy.
Walker is the best choice for getting Wisconsin back on track financially and competing for more good-paying jobs.
Um...but still fo vote, OK? LOL!
Wow, that’s HUGH! Heads will be exploding on the talk shows tomorrow...
Read the comments, the libs in Madison are freaking out.
Is that true??
Wow. That is astonishing!!
. . . and series!
Has it ever! Never would have dreamed I would see this.
During my years of Wisconsin residence, most recently in Dane County (1973-1987) the WSJ was the less liberal of Madison’s two newspapers. Is the Capital Times still being published?
Certainly not everyone needs to go to college, but these days, I believe everyone needs to complete some form of post-high school education, in order to get ahead. Walker will be expected to communicate at a high level with the people of WI and around the world.
They really can't see how haughty they are!
Rush Limbaugh doesn't have a College Degree and he owns a Gulfstream 550, at least until they get done building his Gulfstream 650.
I don't have a College Degree, but I somehow managed to start out as an 18 Year Old Mail Clerk and retire as a 50 Year Old Regional Vice President for a Fortune 500 Bank.
It's called hard work and dedication, not whining that somebody else owes you a living because you have a fancy piece of paper and memories of drunken Frat parties swirling in your head.
Oh, wait:
...excessive pandering to social conservatives on issues such as embryonic stem-cell research and abortion.
Whew! For a moment there, I thought there had been an unreported kidnapping. But even the implicit acknowledgment that there might be such a thing as non-excessive "pandering" to social conservatives, and that the type of stem cell research in question is only embryonic, is suspicious. Better keep an eye on this "Writer" guy, and make sure he doesn't try anything funny.
After enlisting in the U.S.Navy, he recognized that the people who rose within that organization had special skills, so he taught himself to type. He left the Navy as the youngest Chief Petty Officer in WWI.
When he retired twenty years later, it was from an oil company where he had been the resident expert on contract law and an assistant to the company's President.
Note: if he had gone to college and earned a bachelor's degree he would have been made president of that oil company.
The man to whom he'd been an assistant died unexpectedly and grandpa ran the company for several months. But without that ‘sheepskin’, the board of directors chose someone else. In some businesses, it's just required.
wow! pretty cool!
Walker did attend Marquette University in Milwaukee... just hasn’t finished a degree. He worked for IBM, it would be interesting to learn how that happened without a degree.
‘Tis true. :)
The Journal is not very liberal. Now if the Madison Cap-Times (Wisconsin’s Progressive Newspaper) endorsed Walker, that would be something.
“Is the Capital Times still being published?”
If I’m remembering correctly, they went to a FREE ‘late in the day’ edition to continue pimping their propaganda while they were going belly-up and bleeding dollars...
I truly haven’t seen a stand with the FREE ‘Crap-it-all Times’ in ANY convenience store or gas station in recent memory...
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