An insightful article in this month’s Milwaukee Magazine about what makes right-wing radio tick caught my attention, not so much because it’s confirming what most people know, but doing it in a well known media publication like Milwaukee Magazine.

A couple key excerpts from the article by a former WTMJ talk radio program director Dan Shelly:

In the talk radio business, this concept, which must be mastered to be successful, is called “differentiating” yourself from the rest of the media. It is a brilliant marketing tactic that has also helped Fox News Channel thrive. “We report, you decide” and “Fair and Balanced” are more than just savvy slogans. They are code words signaling that only Fox will report the news in a way conservatives see as objective and truthful.

Forget any notion, however, that radio talk shows are supposed to be fair, evenhanded discussions featuring a diversity of opinions. The Fairness Doctrine, which required this, was repealed 20 years ago. So talk shows can be, and are, all about the host’s opinions, analyses and general worldview. Programmers learned long ago that benign conversations led by hosts who present all sides of an issue don’t attract large audiences.

There is no way to win a disagreement with Charlie Sykes. Calls from listeners who disagree with him don’t get on the air if the show’s producer, who generally does the screening, fears they might make Charlie look bad. I witnessed several occasions when Sen. Russ Feingold, former Mayor John Norquist, Mayor Tom Barrett or others would call in, but wouldn’t be allowed on the air.

This is something I and others have been pointing out for years now so it’s somewhat vindicating to have our worst assumptions confirmed by someone on the inside.

The real losers in all of this aren’t the phony talk show hosts in the article, but the people of Milwaukee who want to move this community forward but constantly run up against the considerable, if not questionable, power that those screaming into the microphones hold.

While they’ve claimed to be standing up for the “regular guy” in their constant attempts to block progress on everything from transit to affordable health care for years now, the amount of influence they hold in this community continue to diminish as the real motives for their actions - increasing ratings - become clearer.

So what is a County Executive doing hanging around with the nations Republican Governors in Southern Florida??

The Politico is reporting that among the attendees at this weeks Republican Governors Association meeting in Southern Florida is none other than Milwaukee’s very own Scott Walker.

At a time when the County he supposedly represents is fighting through a budget deficit, increased crime on County buses and losing State aid because we were so ineffective at using what we were getting, Scott Walker is chumming it up at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami Florida.

And to what end other than to rub shoulders with top Republicans? What is the actual benefit to the County he was elected to represent at this meeting? Check out the schedule of events for the next two days while you think about that:

THURSDAY:

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. AMERICA’S FUTURE LEADERS BREAKFAST (All Conference Attendees)
Featuring Rising Stars in the Republican Party

10:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. PLENARY SESSION II (All Conference Attendees)
Looking Towards the Future: The GOP in Transition

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. GOVERNORS LUNCHEON & DISCUSSION (All Conference Attendees)

2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES (All Conference Attendees)
BOAT CRUISE
Guests will enjoy a leisurely cruise on the waters of the Atlantic.
DAY OF BEAUTY
The Professional Beauty Association will offer an afternoon of pampering to include manicures, pedicures, neck and shoulder massages. Participants will also learn about new products and beauty secrets.
ART DECO TOUR
The Art Deco District is America’s only 20th Century historic district listed in the US National Register of Historic Places.
A certified guide will lead guests on a ninety-minute walking tour to include the late, Gianni Versace’s villa on Ocean Drive and historic hotels. Guests will observe the outside design elements and lobbies along with secluded courtyards. The tour will conclude at the Oriente in the Cordoza Hotel with the restaurant’s signature cocktail.

6:30 p.m. – 7:15 p.m. STATE RECEPTION & WILL CALL (All Conference Attendees)

7:15 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. STATE DINNER (All Conference Attendees)
Hosted by: Governor Rick Perry, RGA Chairman

Post State Dinner LATE NIGHT PARTY
Hosted by: Blank Rome Government Relations
Location: The Delano

FRIDAY:
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. 2009 RGA CHAIRMAN’S BRUNCH (All Conference Attendees)

11:30 a.m. RGA GOLF OUTING (All Conference Attendees)
Location: Miami Beach Club

So a grueling schedule for Scott Walker and some tough choices on Thursday. After breakfast, there’s a whole 90 minutes of speakers before lunch. Then he’ll have to make the tough choice between the leisurely boat cruise, getting “pampered” with a mani/pedi and massage, or a tour of Gianni Versace’s place followed by a cocktail. He’ll need some of that pampering to rock through the night at The Delano though, so don’t judge too harshly.

Tough work if you can find it!

Then on Friday, another grueling day for Scott Walker. Brunch followed by a round of golf at the Miami Beach Club.

Contrast that to the way hundreds of County workers who Walker handed pink slips to this week will likely spend their Friday: in the unemployment line or updating their resumes.

One of the big stories over the past week has been about how the Republican Party is in search of new leadership in light of recent losses.

How does that square with the consevative base who continues to push Sarah Palin as the front runner in 2012?

There’s new leadership and then there’s the candidate who just helped lose the most recent election.

On the heels of Milwaukee County residents supporting a 1% sales tax that would be used in part to fund transit in Milwaukee County, more good news for mass transit today from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority (RTA).

This morning the RTA voted 6 to 1 to approve a report that recommends seeking a sales tax increase of 0.5% in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha counties to provide a dedicated and sound funding source for mass transit in Southeastern Wisconsin, including the “KRM” line that would link Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha to Chicago’s high speed Metra commuter rail system.

While these recommendations will need to go to the state legislature for approval, it’s an encouraging sign that we’ve finally broken through the stalemate that has been keeping the Milwaukee metro area from joining the rest of the Country in implementing and enjoying the benefits of a modern mass transit system.

The one “No” vote? Naturally it was Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s appointee to the RTA.

The County Executive has been a major roadblock to the progress of Milwaukee’s mass transit infrastructure over the past six years. While you’d think that the County Executive of a major metropolitan area would be in favor of creating jobs, building it’s infrastructure, and expanding economic opportunity for the residents of his County, that hasn’t been the case with Scott Walker.

Thankfully, his ability to remain a roadblock on the road to progress in Southeastern Wisconsin has been limited with the events of the last week.

Pardon the break in political blogging while I post some pictures of Carter’s first haircut for friends and family.

I doubt very much we’ll hear either of these two phrases over the next several years despite their huge popularity in the recent past:

“Up or down vote”

“Obstructionist Senators”

Today I learned from right-wing talk radio in Milwaukee that because Pres. Elect Obama has picked a number of non-conservative advisors, his promise to govern from the center is already a broken one.

He should be filling key spots in his administration with conservative ideologues to make the thousands of listeners of morning AM radio a little less pessimistic about the complete failure that his administration has already become in their opinions.

Interesting data from Nielsen Ratings about the most visited news web sites on election day:

Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

- Nielsen.com

Also of interest was the amount of traffic the candidate websites saw on election day:

The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day. Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors

On my own web site I saw this trend as well and had the most traffic in nearly eight years of blogging. Over 1,500 unique visitors on Nov. 4th, and nearly 1,000 yesterday.

I understand the desire by conservatives to try to control the post-election narrative by proclaiming that American is a “Center Right” Country in order to set up an Obama administration for criticism when he doesn’t govern from the “right”, but that’s not really where this Country is politically.

I’m not going to join the pundits and try to claim that I know exactly where this Country is politically, but I doubt after electing a Democrat to the White House and expanding Democratic majorities in Congress the American public is looking for a government that is “Center Right”.

After all, we had one party in control of this nation for the majority of this century. The public was willing to give Republicans the opportunity to run everything in this Country for the first six years of this decade, and when they botched it up by going “hard right” with episodes like the Terri Schiavo incident and massive corruption, the public switched horses in 2006 and continued with that trend two days ago.

I don’t think the results of the election were the American public saying, “move as much to the left as Republicans did to the right” by any means, but the fact is they didn’t elect conservatives or right wing radio talk show hosts on Tuesday.

They elected Democrats. In some cases they elected liberal Democrats. In all cases, I think they expect our Federal Government to govern on behalf of all people. We just got done with eight years of governance that was so one sided, those in charge were booted out in record numbers. I don’t think Democrats will make the same mistake.

With 99% of the votes in, here are the results for the Milwaukee County sales tax referendum:

Yes 183,897 51%
No 176,785 49%

This referendum, and more importantly what it’s trying to accomplish, is something I’ve been a supporter of for over a year. While I’ve been writing about the subject on my weblog during that time, it was the action we put forth on the ground that got this referendum over 50%.

It’s been my great pleasure to help push it over the line as part of the Quality of Life Alliance, and now the real work of getting the will of the people put in to action begins. I’m looking forward to continuing to advocate on behalf of making Milwaukee County a great place to live, work and play for generations to come.

It’s truly a historic day. I can now use the prefix “President Elect” Obama instead of just “Senator” Obama. While some results are trickling in even at this late hour, it’s clearly a night for Democrats to celebrate across America.

While I’ll have much more to say about today’s events after a bit of sleep, I think it’s also important to acknowledge the victories we had here in Milwaukee.

Specifically, something I personally put a massive amount of time and energy in to, the Milwaukee County sales tax referendum, passed by a decent amount. It says a lot about what a group of hard working individuals without a ton of money can do in this day and age. We faced huge obstacles and overcame them.

Again, a historic day for America.