The Milwaukee Post

Walker relates more to middle class than Burke To the editor: Let's take a trip down memory lane. Back in 2012, we had a presidential race where one of the candidates was portrayed as an out-of-touch-with-the-people elitist. Mitt Romney was a millionaire who could not relate to the middle-class people of Wisconsin, according to the narrative. He knew 47 percent of voters would not sup- port him and he was right. He lost here in Wisconsin and nationally. Never mind that Romney gave all of the money he inherited from his father to charity. He and his wife, Ann, practically started life over together, living in a basement apartment and he built his fortune the old-fashioned way. He earned it. Democrats in this state attacked him for it. But that was then and this is now. We have two people running for gover- nor. Mary Burke is the Democrat chal- lenger and the incumbent is Republican Scott Walker. She was handpicked by Mike Tate, the chairman of the state Democratic Party. The ad wars will portray Burke as something she is not and will portray Walker as something he is not. Burke has nothing in common with the middle class. She is a multimillionaire liv- ing off of daddy's money. The one business she started on her own without family failed. When things got tough for her she took a year's sabbatical to go snowboarding in Argentina and other places. When she moved to Milwaukee, this elitist who spent time in Washington, D.C., and New York City was quoted as saying, "What am I doing here" and promptly moved out of state to Seattle. Once she decided to move to Madison, she spent more than $128,000 to virtually buy herself a spot on the local school board. Who does that? Meanwhile, Walker was representing his constituents in the state Assembly. He really did take a brown bag lunch to work every day, earning his $49,000 annual salary. Once he became the county execu- tive of Milwaukee County, he donated a part of his salary back to the taxpayers every year. Walker still lives in the modest house he and his wife, Tonette, own on 68th street in Wauwatosa when he's not in Madison. Burke has multiple homes worth millions of dollars. When middle-class voters of this state ask, "Who is the candidate that best repre- sents me," they will have to decide between a real 1 percenter, someone who knows nothing about the middle class since she has spent life with a silver spoon in her mouth, and someone who has lived with middle-class values all of his life. And that person is Scott Walker. Don't be fooled by the narrative that has suddenly and conve- niently flipped this year. Keith Best West Allis 8 • Milwaukee County Post • September 5, 2014 By JESSICA MCBRIDE Every now and then a presi- dent or politician utters a phrase that becomes memorable and utterly defining. Often it happens when they are not trying to do so and in a way they don't intend. Think: I am not a crook. Or, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Or, the Mission Accomplished sign behind President Bush. Or Hillary's "What difference does it make?" Of course, there are also inspiring lines: "Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." So far, the most memorable line of Obama's presidency was probably this one: "If you like your health insurance, you can keep it." Until this week anyway. I nom- inate a new line for the annals of memorable presidential com- ments: "We don't have a strategy yet." WHAT?! What Obama was talking about was a strategy to take out ISIS in Syria. He was asked about the strategy at a press conference and, unbelievably, revealed that he has none. He then blathered on about how he wants to take time to develop long- term options and gather a coalition. N e w s reports soon revealed that the president's n o n - s t r a t e g y was partly the result of his top advisers not being able to agree on a strategy. What a leader is supposed to do then is pick the best option and rally people around it. You don't respond by saying, "Oh, you don't all agree, so let's announce to the world that we have no strategy." I mean, what?! Imagine what ISIS' response is to this because Obama's com- ments echo throughout the world. If I was ISIS and heard that Obama has no strategy, I would laugh. And then I would become emboldened and continue my rampage, taking advantage of the lull to gather more strength. Frankly, the time to develop a strategy was yesterday. Part of the strategy should have been not prematurely withdrawing our troops from Iraq and developing a coherent strategy toward the Syrian crisis. We don't just need a long-range strategy; we need to act NOW. We should have acted before ISIS took over half of Iraq. You know it's gone too far when people start referring to it as an Islamic State. Sometimes, in the past, I felt conservative criticism of the president went too far. It seemed that no matter what Obama did, conservatives trashed him for it, as relentlessly as many on the left went after President Bush. I defended him when he took out bin Laden. Some conservatives trashed him for that even, trying to remove credit. He made the tough call. Well, this time he's earned the criticism. President Bush didn't get it all right. However, he didn't wait until threats materialized. He scared our enemies, and he put them on the run. He destabilized them abroad so they couldn't attack us so easily at home. His pre-emptive war doctrine is look- ing a lot better these days (grant- ed, you have to pre-emptively attack the right things; we've learned that nation-building is a perilous thing and that sometimes horrible strongmen are holding together fractious groups and might be replaced by something worse). But I'd suspect most peo- ple think we need some kind of pre-emptive action against ISIS (a group that hasn't directly attacked us, although one might argue the horrific executions of journalist James Foley and Steven Sotloff were an assault on America and certainly her ideals). Bush's pre-emptive war doc- trine or Obama's do-nothing doc- trine, which is best? I'd say the former as long as it's done strate- gically and selectively. Maybe we need a president next time who will strike a better balance in between. After saying we don't have a strategy yet, Obama continued, "I don't want to put the cart before the horse," he said. The sugges- tion that "We're about to go full scale on an elaborate strategy for defeating ISIL that we'll start moving forward imminently and somehow Congress, still out of town, is going to be left in the dark, that's not what's going to happen." There's so much wrong with that statement that I don't even know where to begin. Of course, we should go full scale with an elaborate strategy and who cares if congressmen and women are out of town lollygagging around vacation spots while ISIS' atroci- ties keep adding up. This was so bizarre that some people were speculating Obama said all this as a giant bluff to cover up some actual strategy. I wish. It's about our national security. The region's stability. It's about the people we promised freedom and a future to; it's about our sol- diers who gave their lives for that. It's about the ethnic minorities who are suffering forced conver- sions, the human rights viola- tions, the mistreatment of women, and executions of sol- diers. It's about a threat that sim- ply must be dealt with. Yes, immi- nently. I recognize there are not easy solutions. But it would be nice if the president actually had one. Obama doesn't want to put the cart before the horse, but I'm afraid the horse has left the barn. (Jessica McBride is a member of the journalism faculty at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Her column runs occa- sionally in The Post. Readers may email her at jessicamcbride05@live.com.) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR OPINION On ISIS, Obama has no strategy, shows no leadership Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dwayne Butler, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by e-mail to: dbutler@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewrit- ten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words. Letters policy Question of the week The Public Service Commision wants Milwaukee residents to pay for the cost of moving utility lines for the downtown streetcar. What are your thoughts on picking up the tab? Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be pub- lished. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dbut- ler@conleynet.com. McBride

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