On Wisconsin?

The decision by Wisconsin Democrats to give Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett a second chance at the state governorship against Republican incumbent Scott Walker in the June recall election is something of an anomaly in Democratic politics.  As anyone knows - because Chris Matthews and I both keep pointing this out - Democrats normally don't give losing candidates for office a second chance at that same office. Democrats don't like to be associated with losers, so the fact that Wisconsin Democrats renominated Tom Barrett to run for governor again only underscores how hated Scott Walker is.  People who voted for him in 2010 might just have enough buyer's remorse to give Barrett another look.

If they look at Barrett again, they'll see how he, as mayor of Milwaukee, recently asked public employee unions for concessions of pay raises and overtime, though he was willing to bargain on these issues despite the fact that Walker's budget cuts to municipal aid forced his hand.  That wasn't good enough for his primary challenger, Kathleen Falk, who had vowed to take a tougher line on behalf on unions.  Not too surprisingly, union members haven't exactly warmed to Barrett, and his primary campaign against Falk demonstrates that Democrats need to do as much soul searching as Republicans on what and whom they stand for.  But Wisconsinites not only could have a worse governor - they already do.  And Barrett's relatively more moderate approach to budget issues could help with independent voters who are as cool toward unions as they are toward the Tea Party.

Merely being against an incumbent isn't enough to defeat the incumbent in question in a general election.  Ask Democrats who thought they only needed someone "electable" to defeat the younger President Bush in 2004.  But in this case, it isn't just any incumbent - it's Scott Walker, and the general election is a recall election forced by thousands of petitioners. Barrett might be able to pull it off.

But if he doesn't, I wouldn't advise defeated Democrats from 2010 to make any comebacks in the future.  A Walker victory in June would only demonstrate once again that Democrats shoot their own wounded for a reason.