Liberals raise expectations

Mickey Kaus Columnist
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Anything under 58% and we declare victory: PPP polls and Talking Points Memo are completely ineffective at lowering expectations for a “big” (59% to 36%) “humiliating” and “decisive” pro-union win in Ohio on Tuesday (in the referendum on Gov. Kasich’s law restricting collective bargaining by public employee unions). … That’s the best spin I can come up with right now.  Unfortunately PPP has a good track record for accuracy this year. …

Projected recriminations: a) Blame Kasich! b) Now we know why Wisconsin Gov. Walker exempted police and firefighters from his anti-collective-bargaining law, a decision for which he took a lot of heat. …

P.S.: Brace for lots of wishful punditry on how this off year non-midterm non-presidential vote could herald a resurgence in President Obama and the Democratic Party’s fortunes.  E.J.? … E.J.? …

P.P.S.: I tend to think conventional New Deal style collective bargaining is doomed by large historic forces, whatever the outcome on Tuesday. If Wagner Act unions effectively vanish in the economy’s competitive private sector, how long will voters support them in the public sector, where they are less defensible? …

Mickey Kaus