Scott Walker Retreats on Jobs Pledge in National Debate

Scott Walker's 2010 campaign promise to create 250,000 new private sector jobs in his first term was broken after Walker repeated the pledge, before scrubbing the jobs promise off his campaign website in 2013.

"It’s a commitment I made in 2010 and it’s a commitment I make today," Walker said at the 2012 Wisconsin GOP convention (Mal Contends) (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Last night, Walker was asked about his broken jobs promise and Walker said his promise was simply the result of a governor who "aimed high"—a qualification never used in his campaigns. (Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) (Wisconsin State Journal omits coverage of jobs question in debate coverage).

No promise, no commitment, no accountability, Walker apparently wants America to believe any promise he makes is subject to revision in light of Walker's unmentioned future assurances that he aimed high.

Would a mortgage company accept this explanation for a broken commitment?

How about a judge who received assurances from a convicted defendant for a deferred sentence?
- Well, judge we reached that agreement because I aimed high.

Perhaps American jurists will revise Contract Law in which a new element of a binding agreement is an undisclosed intention to aim high.

The national audience introduced to Walker last night could not see the following truisms in the constrained debate format, but with Scott Walker two rules apply:

• Nothing Walker promises should be believed
• Most of what Walker will do in office will not be discussed in public

From a Time Magazine transcript of the Fox News debate last night in Cleveland:

CHRIS WALLACE: Governor Walker.

(APPLAUSE) Governor Walker, when you ran for governor of Wisconsin back in 2010, you promised that you would create 250,000 jobs in your first term, first four years. In fact, Wisconsin added barely half that and ranked 35th in the country in job growth. Now you’re running for president, and you’re promising an economic plan in which everyone will earn a piece of the American dream.

Given your record in Wisconsin, why should voters believe you?

SCOTT WALKER: Well, the voters in Wisconsin elected me last year for the third time because they wanted someone who aimed high, not aimed low.

Before I came in, the unemployment rate was over eight percent. It’s now down to 4.6 percent. We’ve more than made up for the jobs that were lost during the recession. And the rate in which people are working is almost five points higher than it is nationally.

You know, people like Hillary Clinton think you grow the economy by growing Washington. One report last year showed that six of the top 10 wealthiest counties in America were in or around Washington, D.C.. I think most of us in America understand that people, not the government creates jobs. And one of the best things we can do is get the government out of the way, repeal Obamacare, put in — reign in all the out of control regulations, put in place and all of the above energy policy, give people the education, the skills that the need to succeed, and lower the tax rate and reform the tax code. That’s what I’ll do as president, just like I did in Wisconsin.