Wisconsin: A Political Portrait in Primary ColorsWith all eyes on Wisconsin's primary, Mitt Romney became the Republican presumptive nominee before April got old. He pulled it off in the state where the party arose out of Whig ashes before the Civil War. Not bad for a man lacking a lyrical touch. The heartland made an ideal stage for Romney, who often left his heart at home. Another barrier broke Tuesday. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay congresswoman, officially became the Democratic Senate nominee. What do you know, as they say — in an understated way. Note: natives don't brag, not even about the top-tier public education system — stuff of the "Wisconsin idea." Architect Frank Lloyd Wright broke this rule, so his home state saw him as stuck-up. Wisconsin can be a political prism for seeing double. Few states capture the country's contradictions so well. Count it as a blue state, yet red is not far behind, and vice versa. Liberal Madison, the capital, is a long way from Green Bay, where football pride still matters as the only thing. In rocky times, contrasts are cut in sharper relief. Madison and brawny Milwaukee — with a winged art museum on the waterfront — are cities surrounded by rich farmlands, small towns and pristine scenery that inspired the conservation movement. By Romney's side at state campaign stops was telegenic Paul Ryan, the congressman at one with the House Budget Committee, which he chairs. Before the Easter recess, the House passed his budget proposal, making waves as daringly Draconian. Striding across the halls of the Capitol, Ryan acts for all the world like Wisconsin's gift to Washington. In his lovefest with Romney and attacks on President Obama ("debt, doubt and decline"), the younger Ryan projected a surer sense of self — just "a guy from Janesville." Right. Keep your eye on that guy. One of few House Republicans in the limelight, Ryan's already being touted as Romney's running mate. A donnybrook on the home front went national as a refresher class in civil disobedience.
Walker faces a statewide recall vote in June. Those in the sea of protestors on the Capitol square, discontented in winter cold, are counting the days. The exhilaration brought back the days of the wind blowing in the '60s, when the University of Wisconsin sparked the nation's anti-Vietnam War movement. David Maraniss' "They Marched Into Sunlight" tells the tale. "The war" was the Greek chorus in the faculty housing where I lived as a girl in Madison. At rallies at the UW's Memorial Union, I breathed in old-fashioned democratic oxygen fresh as the dairy ice cream. I knew the war was sad, just as I learned to swim in the lake by the colorful chairs on the Union Terrace and walk the Indian ground on Picnic Point. Walker proved no match for the "Mad City" masses. (The nickname was all too apt.) As he explained, he had a huge crush on President Reagan, while in adolescence, for breaking the air traffic controllers strike and union. Walker, Ryan's peer, is the latest proof of the Wisconsin opposite effect, which keeps things interesting. While one Wisconsin Republican shines in the sun, another looks doomed for the depths. But one pair of perfect opposites remains hard to equal — or fathom. The infamous Communist blacklister Joseph McCarthy was a senator from Wisconsin. Then again, a century ago, so was the Progressive Party's Robert LaFollette, a champion of social justice. John F. Kennedy and others named him as one of the Senate's greats. As the fight song goes, "On Wisconsin" — forward progress, seldom in a straight line. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM 
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