Neumann to shake up campaign

Politics Blog: Neumann to shake up campaign

Interesting that this is now being publicly discussed. The campaign has not developed a strong and consistent voice in social media, at least, since Neumann entered the race. Rumors of a shakeup have been around for several months.

Discuss: 1) If you are the candidate, is it a good idea to announce a shakeup or do you dismiss questions about your campaign staff? 2) Has the weak Neumann campaign operation helped the more well developed Walker campaign appear dominant? 3) Will there be pressure on Neumann to get out of the race, as was the case with Walker in 2006? 4) Do contested primaries help or hurt the eventual nominee?

A 20-Something Makes a Mint

A 20-Something Makes a Mint (and Sells It to Intuit) - Question - NYTimes.com

This is a very nice interview with insight into why startups can find opportunities and how they market themselves very efficiently. Note also the monetization strategy, still a weak spot with lots of internet startups.

I like it that he's 29. Why not think of your 20s as the time you build your business or your career into a powerhouse. A long slow climb may work for lots of people, but there are opportunities if you seize them. Note this quote from Patzer:

Once you have a successful business, it sort of demystifies the world. It gives you all the confidence in the world that you can set your mind to something and do just about anything. It gives you this rock solid self-confidence that helps in personal interactions and helps in selling your vision of the company to investors and new employees.

Roth announces race against Kagen

WisPolitics.com

Dems have had a hard time holding the Green Bay congressional district. Steve Kagen's win against a formidable opponent (John Gard) in 2006, and his reelection in a rematch against Gard in 2008 have given Dems hope that this district might stay with them for a while.

Now, State Rep. Roger Roth (R-Appleton) has sent a fundraising letter making it clear he will likely be a candidate for the Republican nomination.

Discuss: 1) What advantages as a candidate does Roth enjoy? 2) Is the location of his district a plus, minus or no effect for the race? 3) Read his fundraising letter. What does it say about his campaign? 4) Edit his letter to improve the message. 5) Draft an alternative announcement for a Republican candidate running against Kagen. 6) How should the Kagen campaign respond to Roth's entry into the race? 7) Find out how much money Kagen has raised, spent, and has on hand. 8) How liberal is Kagen's voting record? How often does he defect from the Dem majority? What is his support for Obama? What key votes has he cast that might be the basis of an attack along the lines Roth's fax implies will be his focus?

WI has an AG race too!

WisPolitics.com has the story. There is a Democrat, former DNR Secretary Scott Hassett, running against incumbent Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. The WisPolitics.com story discusses the results of a poll by Democratic polling firm The Mellman Group that suggests Van Hollen is weaker than many assume.

The polling memo is here.

Discuss: 1) Do the poll results surprise you? Why or why not? 2) Does the Van Hollen campaign response work? 3) Write 3 different responses to the poll from Van Hollen's perspective. 4) Why doesn't the Mellman poll memo mention Dem Scott Hassett's favorability or name recognition? Give two good reasons. 5) What crosstab would you most want to see from the Mellman poll?

Barrett announces, GOP Responds

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is now officially in the race for Governor.

Let's go to the video:

The text of the Barrett announcement is at

Scott Walker's campaign was quick to respond here.

And what of new media?

Barrett has a website, but no Twitter or Facebook presence yet. Only using email. They do offer the announcement text (linked above) and a contribution page.

Mark Neumann's web page is silent on the announcement. His occasional Twitter stream has this:

47 degrees in Green Bay... couldn't be a better day to beat the Cowboys at home. Go Pack!about 2 hours ago from web

Which undoubtedly reflects what most in Wisconsin are thinking about today.

The Walker campaign however was quick on the attack:

1. RT @scottwalkerhq More Doyle - @NationalJournal gave Tom the Taxer a “liberal” rating of 88%about 1 hour ago from HootSuite
2. RT @jillbader Tom the Taxer talking about property tax? Scott Walker 0% increase – Barrett raised 4.4%about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
3. RT @jillbader Just like Doyle…Barrett, on whether he will "moderate his views" as gov.: "I wouldn't say moderate.” 9/3/01about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
4. This is how serious I am about holding down property taxes:http://ow.ly/CvIIabout 3 hours ago from HootSuite
5. Headed up 2 Green Bay 4 the Packers/Cowboys game. Go Pack Go! #packersabout 3 hours ago from HootSuite
6. UR vote: Barrett – More taxes, more spending. My plan – less taxes, more jobs. #believeinwiabout 4 hours ago from HootSuite

And the parties? Here is the WisGOP Twitter stream:

1. RT @WKOW: RT @jhersch_wkow What does the Republican Party think about Barrett's candidacy for governor? Hear reax on 27 News at 10!about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
2. Doyle and Barrett: More taxes, more spending. No thanks! Watch the video: http://bit.ly/1fhzu9about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
3. Liberal Barrett, aka "Tom the Taxer" to run for Doyle's third term. http://bit.ly/49Ztlaabout 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

And the Dems?

1. Another poll and chance to show who you support in 2010:http://bit.ly/4xlEqb19 minutes ago from TweetDeck
2. Show your support for Mayor Barrett in today's online poll:http://bit.ly/2qcKpw29 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Walker and WisGOP were quick and on message. Also note the opposition research the Walker campaign was immediately ready with and quick to put out. No doubt about how they want the public to see Barrett. Neumann not engaged with Barrett today, though quotes from Neumann camp did appear in the Journal-Sentinel story this morning driving home the negative "career politician" point.

On the Dem side, the Barrett new media campaign (all of 5 hours old at this point) consists of a website and little more. Dem party support was much slower than the GOP operation which was quick, repeated and on message. Dems did put up a statement on their website, but failed to Tweet about it.

Discuss: 1) Will today's new media stream change the election outcome? (Answer "No") But 2) If you were running each of these campaigns and parties, how would you feel about your performance today? Why? 3) Deconstruct the Barrett candidacy announcement. What does it reveal about his approach? 4) Deconstruct the Walker response (and related Tweet stream.) 5) How effective are each in achieving their goals? 6) Where do each suggest potential vulnerabilities?

A Republican on every ballot

A Republican on every ballot - washingtonpost.com

A party being rebuilt from the ground up.

The New Untouchables

Op-Ed Columnist - The New Untouchables - NYTimes.com

Tom Friedman on who has the advantage in the current workforce. What value-added are you bringing to your political science degree? Here is a nice summary from the end:

As the Harvard University labor expert Lawrence Katz explains it: “If you think about the labor market today, the top half of the college market, those with the high-end analytical and problem-solving skills who can compete on the world market or game the financial system or deal with new government regulations, have done great. But the bottom half of the top, those engineers and programmers working on more routine tasks and not actively engaged in developing new ideas or recombining existing technologies or thinking about what new customers want, have done poorly. They’ve been much more exposed to global competitors that make them easily substitutable.”

Those at the high end of the bottom half — high school grads in construction or manufacturing — have been clobbered by global competition and immigration, added Katz. “But those who have some interpersonal skills — the salesperson who can deal with customers face to face or the home contractor who can help you redesign your kitchen without going to an architect — have done well.”

Just being an average accountant, lawyer, contractor or assembly-line worker is not the ticket it used to be. As Daniel Pink, the author of “A Whole New Mind,” puts it: In a world in which more and more average work can be done by a computer, robot or talented foreigner faster, cheaper “and just as well,” vanilla doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s all about what chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherry you can put on top. So our schools have a doubly hard task now — not just improving reading, writing and arithmetic but entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.

View From Inside the Great Depression

Talking Business - Benjamin Roth’s View From Inside the Great Depression - NYTimes.com

This is a very interesting piece by Joe Nocera in today's NYT. I think I'll buy the book.

Here are some pictures to go with the article. They show the decline and then rise circa 1937-38 of unemployment and the rebound of the stock market followed by a second large fall. Nocera has a nice discussion of the policy issues behind that increase of unemployment then and the implications for the current recovery.

And compare with now: (click on graph for full size)

2 Americans Share Economics Nobel

2 Americans Share Economics Nobel - NYTimes.com

Our Big Ten colleague at Indiana, Elinor Ostrom, has won the Nobel Prize in economics. She is the first woman laureate ever for the economics prize. And she is the fourth political scientist to win or share the Nobel.

Bravo!

Teaching Students to Sift Mountains of Data

Teaching Students to Sift Mountains of Data - NYTimes.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — It is a rare criticism of elite American university students that they do not think big enough. But that is exactly the complaint from some of the largest technology companies and the federal government.

At the heart of this criticism is data. Researchers and workers in fields as diverse as bio-technology, astronomy and computer science will soon find themselves overwhelmed with information. Better telescopes and genome sequencers are as much to blame for this data glut as are faster computers and bigger hard drives.

Political science doesn't yet have this problem, but there is no reason we can't or shouldn't go there. Every campaign contribution, every precinct vote return, every roll call vote. Every international conflict event. Every foreign investment. Every word of political news coverage. Every blog post. For all time.

And if you want to get teched up for graduate school in any field, or you want to move to silicon valley and make a billion, learn to handle large data.

For Twitter fans, search #hadoop to find fellow travelers who you can follow and who will point to you events and resources. Take a look at #mapreduce as well.

Wise Muddling Through

Op-Ed Columnist - Wise Muddling Through - NYTimes.com

Nice-- and a nice allusion to "The Science of Muddling Through" article you read.

Why We Must Ration Health Care - NYTimes.com

Why We Must Ration Health Care - NYTimes.com

This is a national policy issue, but is also implicit at the state level with Badger Care, for example.

If the amount we can spend on health care is not infinite, then how do we allocate a finite resource? Here is one way of thinking through those issues.

But are they politically acceptable? Which candidate will run on this platform? What constituent will vote for such a candidate?

Backward we go in Dairyland - JSOnline

Backward we go in Dairyland - JSOnline

Full WPRI Article

WPRI is a "free market oriented" think tank, so assume a particular point of view. However, they produce analysis based on data and thoughtful argument, rather than empty rhetoric. Whatever the solutions might look like, I think the problems pointed out in this article are central to the future of the state. Republican candidate for Governor, Scott Walker, tweeted both these pieces. (On Twitter Walker is @scottkwalker and Mark Newman is @StrongWisconsin . So far as I know Gov. Doyle isn't on Twitter.)

Gov. Doyle's office responds:

Asked to respond, the office of Gov. Doyle, a Democrat, dismissed the Alabama comparison. Wisconsin ranked 24th for median wages, while Alabama came in 45th, in a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey that covers all occupations, Doyle's office noted.

While the WPRI points out that Wisconsin had zero job growth from 2000 to 2005, Doyle's office said that period includes the 2001 recession, which predates Doyle's stint as governor. Doyle took office in January 2003.

"Job growth improved beginning in 2002," Doyle's office said, citing BLS statistics that show 2.1% job growth from 2002-'05 and 1.5% in 2005-'07.

The governor's office concedes that Wisconsin job growth lagged the national average under his watch, but said Wisconsin "is comparable to other Great Lakes states in recent history."

"They cherry-pick statistics," Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said of the WPRI report. "This is a right-wing group that's putting together an attack."

National Journal Online - The Six Most Dysfunctional State Governments

National Journal Online - The Six Most Dysfunctional State Governments

Fortunately, Wisconsin isn't on this list (yet).

University students not shy about asking profs to reconsider grades

University students not shy about asking profs to reconsider grades

This article is more than a little harsh on students, given that my experience at least is that they are describing a distinct minority yet the story makes it sound like the majority.

However, I'd be interested in your reaction and thoughts. There are a couple of quotes from the article that I think DO hit home, even if there is a good bit of exaggeration:

"The point is that we are in the business of higher education, not mediocre education," Moses wrote in an e-mail while traveling in Europe. "This sounds elitist but the challenge of global competition to the U.S. way of life does not call for trying hard, it calls for performance"

And:

"Too many students don't know why they are in college," engineering physics professor Moses wrote in his e-mail. "Too many don't know how to study. Too many have completely incorrect expectations. It is a system that is badly broken and not for a single reason. It is a system problem. The bottom line is that the U.S. future in the so-called knowledge economy is doomed with the students we are now producing as graduates. Companies locate factories in China and call centers in India not only because the workers work for less. The workers are also better qualified. If that is an exaggeration today, it will certainly become reality in a decade."

I doubt that my generation had any better idea of why we went to college than does yours. (Faculty often forget that.) Many of us had a great time socially while doing ok in classes. Some lost their way and flunked out. And a few found direction and excelled (not just in grades but in a focus and direction for their lives.) I don't think faculty can command students to be in the third category-- you have to find it for yourself. I don't think I've encountered an example of the third category begging for grades, and perhaps surprisingly I rarely get begging from those who are failing.

Take a look at the comments on the Cap Times article as well. An interesting set of perspectives.