Quote of the Day: 

“The state of the union is cold.”

— President Barack Obama, speaking Thursday at a General Electric plant in Waukesha

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The weather may be chilly, but the cold shoulder that the president got from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke was even chillier. Burke’s office said the candidate was too busy with events in western Wisconsin to meet with the nation’s highest-ranking Democrat, setting off a wave of speculation that Burke had political motivations in mind for being elsewhere.

There was one gubernatorial candidate there: Gov. Scott Walker. He met Air Force One on the tarmac and thanked the president for his help with a propane shortage.

Their exchange was friendly, but not as friendly as the “bromance” going on between Walker and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan — despite the fact that both may be candidates for president in 2016.

Had John Nichols been on the tarmac, he might have given Obama an earful about fast-tracking trade policies that only end up increasing income inequality.

Meanwhile, Politico dug deep into Ryan’s changing role in Washington, D.C., — from tea party darling to high-profile deal-maker — and what that might mean for his presidential plans.

And the Washington Post published a poll listing Ryan as the GOP’s 2016 front-runner, with Walker not even listed among the also-rans.

Finally, we had a couple of stories at the Cap Times Thursday that exemplified the iconoclastic nature of the city’s east side. One is about the former Smart Studios, easily the most nondescript building on East Washington Avenue, that has been reborn as Clutch Sound recording studios.

And east siders have been delighted by the kooky signs (“Don’t Trust Atoms, They Make Up Everything,” “Some People Are Wise, Some People Otherwise”) at the BP gas station on Williamson Street. Jessie Opoien talked to the man behind the letters.

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