WI-SEN 2022 Megathread: Who stole my cheese?

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It'd be like if Fetterman wins by underunni8nging Biden in rural PA and Allegehny, yet does even better in Chester and Montgomery counties and more generally SEPA. Wouldn't be the coalition anyone would've thought.

Not the thread for it and others have explained Johnson's win already, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is exactly what happens.

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MJS ran a long piece this morning on Barnes's Twitter account, including his comments that Donald Trump is a "Russian spy" and Steve Scalise was "taking one for the team" in his attempted assassination: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/daniel-bice/2022/09/29/mandela-barnes-us-senate-candidate-vs-ron-johnson-2022-election-on-twitter-donald-trump-russian-spy/10440513002/

Expect at least some of this to make its way into another effective Johnson attack ad.

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Marcus Flowers has consistently outraised every other House candidate in Georgia this year, and it might make him lose by 30% instead of 40.  Although (as Adam Griffin, I think, pointed out) it's not a complete waste of money.  If he turns out more Democratic votes than usual in the 14th, it helps in the statewide races.

Has he ever been pictured without a hat? It’s like Glenn Youngkin always appearing in a fleece. Odd how candidates latch onto a specific type of clothing as central to their image.

It's a central theme of "branding" and has been a thing forever (e.g., Lincoln's stove-pipe hat). If anything, it's waned in the era of television and film (and smartphones), when recognizing celebrities and politicians by their faces, rather than a unique article of clothing, has become more common.

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MJS ran a long piece this morning on Barnes's Twitter account, including his comments that Donald Trump is a "Russian spy" and Steve Scalise was "taking one for the team" in his attempted assassination: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/daniel-bice/2022/09/29/mandela-barnes-us-senate-candidate-vs-ron-johnson-2022-election-on-twitter-donald-trump-russian-spy/10440513002/

Expect at least some of this to make its way into another effective Johnson attack ad.

I’m just gonna say this right now, and this should’ve been obvious from the start.

This race is over.

Johnson is going absolutely medieval (or 1988, at minimum) on Barnes on television. Here's the latest:

https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1575868532646367232

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Not sure if Willie Horton campaigns is what you want to define this race, but I'm in IDGAF mode as far as politics is concerned. Hell, I'd probably do the same thing.

I think most politicos would take an 8-point come-from-behind win, even if it means DC media will write mean things about them when they die.

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I think the Barnes tweets are mostly nothing except the Scalise one, which definitely concedes any moral high ground when Johnson cites Waukesha/Kenosha for political points.

Then again, older voters might not appreciate the less serious tone of social media. Older Republicans consistently cited Twitter as their strongest criticism of Trump (and his ban has been a major factor in his post-presidency polling bounce).

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Suggestions for a new thread title?

Close the Barnes Door

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[natural disaster hits major city]

how will this affect poll

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Well the Russians don't gun down black people on the streets so it kind of makes sense strangely enough. Also this was back in 2015 and 2016. Back then everyone from Ed Schultz to Keith Olbermann were moving to RT. Barnes may well lose, but that the Dems here would rather throw their own nominee under the bus to appease anti Russian hysteria is amusing.

You ever heard of Wagner?

This is certainly getting to be a bit of a Götterdämmerung (or perhaps Götzen-Dämmerung) for Barnes admirers.

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Seems like a huge waste of Obama's time, but then he never did have great political instincts. (I am prepared to eat crow on the first part if Barnes does the impossible.)

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https://twitter.com/RonJohnsonWI/status/1581427843976032256

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Insulting Obama-Trump voters in Wisconsin is not smart at all. Insulting Romney Clinton voters would be less stupid but I know that, unfortunately, many democrats prefer the laters to the formers.

Obama-Trump voters aren't coming back. Biden tried, HARD, to court them in 2020. Most of them are full-on Q now.

Biden's win can be attributed entirely to his improvements with white men.