You said you want to do comparative politics, but then you mentioned Barry who is an Americanist. I was at Wisconsin during the visitation weekend (didn't end up there because of family reasons), but it is a great program (I kind of regret not choosing to go there). I think placements, at least in the IR subfield, should be on the rise because the awesome hires they made over the past 5 years or so (it takes a while for new hires to have an impact on placement). The comparative politics faculty, in particular Melanie and Scott, are fantastic.
A caution about judging schools solely on placement: I know for a few schools you mentioned (NYU and Wisconsin, for example) some of the students they placed were severally restricted geographically, which makes things difficult in academia. Some had options to go to great R1's, but chose lesser schools because of their restrictions.