Wednesday-Morning-Quarterbacking (On Thursday)

Suffice it to say he was preaching to the converted. The President’s trip to Madison and his speech had few surprises and not much new information. He was back on the stump, trying to get the college kids to vote next month, and he was energized.

The biggest surprise, perhaps, was Russ Feingold actually showing up at the event. He’d said he couldn’t be there because of some vote in the Senate, but around 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon he tweeted that he was headed west and would be at the event. Russ is in trouble, and he needs every single one of those college kids there to vote for him.

There was a minor surprise when the Presidential motorcade made a quick stop at LaFollette High, and he joked with the jocks on the athletic field for a while.

It’s no secret that this was a purely political stop. The national TV networks gave it passing mention or none, on Wednesday. The President gave a stump speech very similar to the one he gave at the Kohl Center when he was here during the campaign.

Just as George Bush was always a hit when he spoke to soldiers or sailors at military installations, Obama can rock the house in front of a throng of college kids. College kids at one of the most liberal institutions in the most liberal city in the state. College kids who don’t give two hoots in hell about health insurance; college kids who don’t own property and pay real estate taxes; college kids who haven’t yet arrived in the “real” workaday world when you get your first paycheck and see what a bite taxes really do take out of your earnings, especially in Wisconsin.

The wind of change is somewhere between a stiff breeze and a full-on storm in the Badger state. Every one of those young folks at the rally Tuesday are going to have to vote…and they’re going to have to take a few like-minded friends with them to the polls in November.

I have a feeling not even the bluest of the blue counties in Wisconsin is going to hold back the wind in November, though.