Why wasn't Tammy Baldwin, or better still, Russ Feingold, the recall candidate?

[KamaAina]

Instead we had to settle for the same guy who got whipped by Wanker in 2010. And he got slapped in the face again, this time literally.

More to the point, why can we only win if we have a once-in-a-generation rock star candidate like Obama, but they can win with any old frat boy who got a coed knocked up? (that could be either Wanker or Bush**, by the way)?

[MADem]

1. Feingold is on the POTUS reelection team as a campaign co-chair.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/02/obama-campaign-announces-cochairs-115161.html

I think he's teaching at the university level, as well.

I would guess that Baldwin is needed in the House, we are trying to take that back, after all... but I don't know much about her.

[DURHAM D]

3. Last I checked Baldwin is running for the Senate.

[MADem]

4. I hope her seat goes to a Dem! nt

[WI_DEM]

9. Her seat is in a heavily democratic district and will go democratic.

[MADem]

12. ....

That's GOOD news!

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Because neither Tammy Baldwin nor Russ Feingold won the recall primary, right?

[mahina]

5. Kidding, right?

[marasinghe]

6. that's what a number of us were wondering.

guess the fact of Russ Feingold losing his seat in the last election should have been a reminder & a warning to us that -
the US electorate has the enlightened self-interest and common sense of the apocryphal swan-dive of lemmings into fjords.
at least Russ has the intelligence not to put himself at the electoral mercy of a mob of sheep being led to slaughter.

[MrSlayer]

7. Because they didn't want to lose?

And they would have lost too. The jackass won by a point more than he won the original election. He is who Wisconsin wanted the first time and most of the voters thought he was unfairly recalled whether they liked his latest policies or not.

Both of the suggested candidates would have been outspent 7:1 as well. Hell, more, much more if it looked like there was any chance Walker would lose.

Take what little good came out of last night and run with it.

[WI_DEM]

8. Feingold was asked many times, but he didn't want to--Baldwin running for Senate.

[frazzled]

10. If Feingold couldn't retain his Senate seat in WI

Even as an incumbent ... What makes you think he could have done better than Barrett in the governor recall election.?

Do you really think the problem was that the Democrats didn't have a sufficiently progressive candidate? If so, I think you are not seeing the picture of what the electorate in states like WI is about.

[KamaAina]

11. Actually, I thought the problem was that we had the same candidate who had just been beaten

Same old, same old.

Baldwin and Feingold are the two highest-profile WI Dems I could think of offhand. It doesn't hurt that they're progressive, either.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. A loss (especially a narrow one) isn't a referendum on one's entire career

LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama all lost elections before becoming President of the United States.

[JNelson6563]

13. Maybe they didn't want it.

Considering how recalls generally go, if I were either one of them I probably would have passed as well. Would love to see Feingold go for it after this term is over though. That would be awesome!

Julie