Robert Trainholm News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

You know, it's not only the budget in play in wisconsin. the battle between the governor and unions may represent a new political dynamic with huge implications coming up for 2012. as nbc news political analyst howard fineman writes on the huffington post, "the underlying strategic wisconsin story is this. governor scott walker, a tea party-tinged republican, is the advance guard of a new gop push to dismantle public sector unions as an electoral force. reducing the union structure and membership will make it harder for democrats and their allies to communicate directly with workers." karen fi...

And also from a grassroots standpoint. so you know, when you take a look at the map, thomas, as you mentioned a few moments ago, president obama and the democrats have to take a look at the map and say you know what, we can win the presidency in 2012, there's no question about it, especially if it is sarah palin that we're running against. but it makes that climb much, much steeper. and that's what's making them really, really worried. and karen's right to a certain degree. this is about two things. first and foremost, let's not lose sight of this. it is about states all across the country tha...

What walker is really about here is a political strategy, not a budget-balancing strategy. and i think ultimately that's part of what has been turning the tide against the republicans on this issue. that you know, there's a fundamental fairness issue that people just don't like. >> robert, let's go to the maps on this, though, because in the mid-terms republicans were hoping to win as many as 20 governorships from the democrats. they ended up taking 12, and that included an impressive sweep for rust belt states with heavy union influence. we've got ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. ...

However, he did not say i'm going to go in and union bust, i'm going to go in and abuse my power and use it to take away rights. and i've got to tell you, i agree with ronald reagan on this, that unions are a fundamental part of human life. i think they're very important. so when you look at 2012 -- and i think republican governors are actually -- that's why you're seeing a lot of them back off a little bit this week. there's a real potential for an overreach. the unions have said we want to do our fair share in helping the budget but we just want to keep our collective bargaining rights. >> i...