The Wisconsin recall debate

The fun begins at 10 p.m. ET, streaming live online at WISN.com. If you’re looking for a reason to watch, here you go: Realistically, the only thing that might happen between now and Tuesday to shift the conventional wisdom about the outcome would be a horrible debate by Walker tonight or a surprisingly strong performance by Tom Barrett. The second-most important election in America this year may turn on what happens over the next two hours. If that’s not good enough, watch so that you’re well prepared for your blog reading next week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be a tsunami of Wisconsin-related posts.
Robert Costa, who’s been tracking the race, identifies four things to watch tonight. The key factor:

Barrett is trying to make the election about Walker’s celebrity among conservatives across the country, tying the governor to the tea-party movement and “far right” interests. He has largely avoided promising to peel apart Walker’s fiscal reforms, which remain more popular than Democrats like to admit. This has been a boon to Walker, but in the final debate, look for Barrett to hit harder.
In the first debate, Walker was mostly disciplined as Barrett sniped, saying again and again that the recall was initially “about our reforms” but that Democrats have pointedly changed topics since “the reforms are working.”
But if Barrett comes armed with talking points about the budget, Walker will have to keep steady and engage him. Walker’s best bet, GOP operatives say, is to bring up how his reforms are helping public schools to make financial decisions free of the public-sector unions’ heavy hand. This argument makes the issue easy to understand.

Read more: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/31/open-thread-the-wisconsin-recall-debate/