When Scott Walker took office...

...as governor of Wisconsin in 2011, job creation in the Badger State was eleventh in the nation. Not great, but not bad, either. Today, Wisconsin ranks 44th (out of 50). That's not great; in fact, it stinks.

From an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (my emphasis):

Asked Thursday about new numbers showing Wisconsin lagging in job growth, Gov. Scott Walker pointed to the uncertainty he said business owners felt because of the political tumult that rocked Wisconsin early in his term.

(Republicans love to blame "uncertainty," don't they? Tell me, when is the future ever "certain?")

As for that "political tumult," what -- or whom -- do you suppose caused that?

Shortly after he took office in 2011, Walker and the Legislature essentially ended collective bargaining for most public employees. That sparked heated reaction inside and outside the Capitol and led to an unsuccessful recall election challenge by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in June 2012.

Whatever. I still believe what I wrote in a post last year:

The first thought I had, while driving for six and a half hours on Saturday (mostly through Wisconsin), was that the Republicans and Democrats in the Dairy State are essentially fighting over a dead body. The economy in Wisconsin, if it ever was anything special, has long been lost to history. The emergence in the Badger State of such tea partiers as Scott Walker, Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan only confirm to me that Wisconsin may have already evolved into a red state. What does that mean? Like other red states, such as Indiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, Wisconsin is gradually becoming a ward of the federal government. In other words, like most red states, it will receive more from the federal government than it sends to Washington in taxes. Stuck between prosperous Minneapolis and Chicago, Wisconsin is resembling -- more and more -- Indiana.