" Understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself — I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America.” --Barack Obama, November 3, 2007.
For about a year, most government workers in the state of Wisconsin have been denied what President Obama views as their "right" to collective bargaining. In February of 2011, Obama called Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's reform an "assault" on unions. But despite his heated rhetoric and his pledge to walk the picket line four years ago, Obama has been nowhere to be seen during the effort to recall Walker.
On Friday, Obama attended a series of fundraisers in Minnesota. "We'd love to have him zip over to western Wisconsin," Walker opponent Tom Barrett told the Huffington Post. "I'm happy to meet him for a fish fry." But there was no Barrett-Obama Friday fish fry. Obama skipped past Wisconsin to Illinois for more fundraisers on Saturday. Then he jetted off to Camp David for the rest of the weekend.
Why couldn't the president find time to take a break from vacuuming up campaign cash and hop across the Wisconsin border? In the past, Obama has been more than willing to campaign for candidates who looked like they were on track to lose--Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, Creigh Deeds in Virginia, Jon Corzine in New Jersey. But that was two or three years ago. Now it's 2012, and Obama can't afford to lose Wisconsin in November. As Byron York notes, polling shows that Wisconsin voters overhwhelmingly support Walker's reforms.