I'm from Talk Radio and I'm Fucking Awesome!

Can we throw some cold water on today's McIlheran/Skyes mutual appreciation society lovefest? Seriously, the homoerotic tension between those two is getting downright volcanic.

The two seem to think that Scott Walker's win in last night's GOP primary was the result of how kick-ass talk radio is:

If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.

Perhaps, though saying thoughts on Milwaukee-area talk radio are "well expressed" is an arguable point on it's best day.

In this claim, Sykes and McIlheran have neglected to ask themselves perhaps the most interesting question about last night's election results: was Walker's win over Nuemann because of or in spite of his last minute deluge of attack ads/mailers against Nuemann?

Walker has been the recipient of nearly daily tongue baths from likes of Sykes and Mark Belling for years now and yet despite the near constant adulation Walker still felt it necessary to devote an absurd portion of his war chest to merely winning a primary most people thought he was a lock to win months, even weeks, ago. That should actually suggest that talk radio probably isn't as powerful as some talk radio host would have their listeners -- or local newspaper columnists -- believe.

But lets look at this another way: If talk radio is the reason for Walker's win in the GOP primary -- how is Walker supposed to win the Gubernatorial race when a proxy unavailable to a large segment of the state promotes his message better than his own campaign?

Regardless of how one looks at talk radio's influence, Scott Walker begins the general election in a significantly weaker position than he had anticipated and the only person who can fix that problem is Scott Walker. Sykes may have taken Walker (and Rebbecca Kleefisch and Ron Johnson) this far, but now his preferred candidates are on their own.