Wisconsin Says, "Bring the Troops Home"

The libs are salivating over this one. I was reading some of the comments on this story at the Huffington Post.

There's some really ugly, vile stuff on there. Why am I not surprised?

MILWAUKEE -- Thousands of voters turned out in Wisconsin to offer a purely symbolic but heartfelt message: Bring the troops home from Iraq.

By margins overwhelming in some places and narrow in others, voters in 24 of 32 communities approved referendums Tuesday calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

I only scanned some of the comments, the few that were coherent, left at the Huffington Post's discussion of the story. For the most part, The anti-war, anti-Bush posters were drawing false conclusions from the story, using it to bolster their agenda.

As usual, the AP's coverage of the story is inadequate, giving readers a slanted picture of the Wisconsin election results.

First, we're talking about "communities," not counties. Most of the communities with an Iraq war referendum on the ballot were suburbs and small towns.

Second, the communities that pushed to get a referendum on the war on the ballot had an energized group that wanted to go to the polls to cast a vote on the issue. Often, little else was on the ballot, and turnout was not exactly impressive.

Check out the final numbers. Other than liberal hotbed Madison, the numbers voting were relatively small.

Third, most of the communities with an Iraq war referendum on the ballot were places that Kerry won in 2004. Bush's strongholds were less likely to have such a referendum on the ballot. Thus, the sample is skewed in favor of the anti-Bush agenda.

In other words, this vote can't be extrapolated to say much about anti-war sentiment in Wisconsin.

"24 Out Of 32 Wisconsin Communities Vote To 'Bring The Troops Home'" makes for a good headline and appeals to anti-war liberals.

However, without an understanding of the demographics and the dynamics, the story can easily lead one to be misled.