Labor loses big

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker easily beat his recall — 54 percent to 45 percent. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker easily beat his recall — 54 percent to 45 percent.

The unions couldn’t win the election THEY THEMSELVES had insisted on.

Some Democrats blamed the money — conservative groups helped Governor Walker out spend challenger Tom Barrett 7-1.

But everybody in Wisconsin understood the choice: Should Scott Walker be punished for gutting Wisconsin’s public employee unions? And voters said absolutely not.

Probably because Walker had evidence that it’s working.

“We’ve saved and documented more than a billion dollars worth of savings from the taxpayers. We’ve seen property taxes go down for the first time in 12 years on a medium-value home. We’ve seen a budget surplus of $154 million.”

A state with an actual budget surplus!

And even though the exit polls show the same voters that kept Scott Walker would also have voted 51 percent for Barack Obama, Mitt Romney sees an opening. In fact Governor Walker’s campaign offices won’t be closing — they’ll be converted to Romney offices.

It may sound crazy to the Paul Krugmans of the world, but the class war — in Wisconsin anyway — isn’t about the insecure middle class versus the secure Romney class.

It’s insecure middle class versus the secure MIDDLE class. It’s middle class people whose jobs are NOT protected by unions versus middle class people whose jobs ARE protected by unions.

Based on the 20 percent difference between union and non-union salaries — we’re talking about 41,000 a year versus 49,000 a year. That’s the fight.

I wonder if the 1 percent are smiling?