Scott Walker's Campaign Is Faltering, Policy Lightweight Is Scaring GOP

Scott Walker

There is an unspoken rule in Scott Walker's campaign and gubernatorial office: No town hall-style events where Walker has to answer unscripted questions and think on his feet.

Like the iconic feather by Garry Trudeau savaging former Vice President Dan Quayle (1989-1993), Scott Walker's brand as a lightweight is penetrating the nation just one month after Walker declared his candidacy for the presidency.

Bake in the fact that Scott Walker's criminal scheme illegally coordinating fundraising is on track in the federal court system, Walker's incredible destruction of his own home state, and you have a fatally wounded candidate, [no matter how much dark money the Koch brothers and other billionaires dump into the electoral system].

Scott Walker's retort: Using a tweet to appeal to the Iowa GOP Caucus crowd amid falling poll numbers: 'Hillary Clinton has liberal, academic friends!'

On that point, Walker is right. Hillary does have well-educated, successful and socially conscious friends, and they worked their butts off to their parents' delight and pride.

But this does not sit well with the radical evangelical Scott Walker who feels academic and professional attainment are elitist defects to be avoided, hence, Walker's perverse efforts to wage war on the University of Wisconsin System.

After Walker's candidacy collapses from sheer lack of policy knowledge and intellect, rightwing welfare and unspent campaign funds await.

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.

Scott Walker Wrecked Wisconsin's Economy—On Purpose

The Milwaukee Shepherd-Express notes in late April that Scott Walker has degraded the Wisconsin economy.

What is not emphasized is Walker did this on purpose.

Walker targeted Dane and Milwaukee counties (the old I-94 Coalition), University towns, workers' wages, public schools, minorities, consumers' rights, the University System, voting rights, local control, clean water, the environment and anything Walker can get his hands on that doesn't vote Republican.

Dane County is too smart for Walker and without Dane County and its educated population and innovative industries, Wisconsin would be in worse shape.

But Walker still is targeting the people of a state as enemies to be conquered. This is sociopathic.

This is who Scott Walker is: A religious fanatic who hates macroeconomics, hates the people of Wisconsin, the vast majority who did not vote for Walker.

The American press has mostly missed the story that Walker cannot win a statewide election in a presidential year, and Walker refused to campaign on any major policy gift he gave to the Koch brothers and gloats about at Republican, out-of-state events.

Scott Walker Is Worried, Worried US Will Follow Wisconsin

After proposing to eviscerate Wisconsin in the state budget following the lacerations Scott Walker inflicted onto Wisconsin, Walker said he is "worried," DesmoinesDem notes at the premier political site on the eight-month run-up to the Iowa presidential caucuses.

Notes DesmoinesDem:

Jon Ward filed this report [yesterday] on a New Hampshire event featuring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

In a recent speech here, the Wisconsin governor used the word "worry" or "worried" 12 times in the space of 15 minutes.

'As a parent today, I'm worried. I'm worried for our country,' Walker told a few hundred conservative activists in a darkened amphitheater, standing in front of a red stage curtain. 'I'm worried about my sons and your sons and daughters, my nieces and your nieces and nephews and grandsons and granddaughters, and I'm worried that we're headed down that same path that worried me years ago in my own state.' [emphasis added]

Walker's message, just a few months into his nascent (and still unofficial) presidential campaign, has been largely a negative one. There is an undertone of testiness in his stump speech, leavened with chest-swelling machismo fueled by his defeat of a recall effort in 2012 and his re-election in 2014.

Scott Walker's M.O.—scream Worried, Broke and Corrupt and then get in, screw-up and run away fast. Look for more mentions of ISIS/ISIL from Walker as well.

Retired Conservative Editor: Scott Walker Lied, Betrayed Wisconsin

"[Scott] Walker is an opportunist who is stepping on this trivial state, [Wisconsin], as he makes his way to the presidency. ... He’s betrayed you for something bigger and better and clearly planned to do so for some time."

The preceding sentence sums up the frustration and heartfelt betrayal of Pete Kennedy, former editor of the Waukesha Freeman (paid, restricted site), a rightwing paper in suburban Milwaukee.

Text of Kennedy's column is at Techno Blog.

Kennedy lets loose on Scott Walker for turning his back on Walker's stated commitment to create jobs, instead outright harming Wisconsin's economy in favor of a selfish run for president.

Kennedy's blasting of Walker comes as national conservatives are questioning Walker, and the national media reports Walker avoids town hall-style question-and-answer sessions with voters in favor of "rope lines" and "avoiding questions in public from prospective voters." (McCormick, Bloomberg).

Kennedy hits Walker not for falling asleep at the wheel on job creation, rather for making policy decisions that are killing jobs in cold-blood in a string of high-profile Walker moves Kennedy lists.

Walker is working to make his candidacy for the presidency more appealing to segments of the GOP's electorate in the Iowa presidential caucuses, and among voters in national GOP presidential primaries.

The Waukesha Freeman's editorial page is similar to the Wall Street Journal's in its hard-right political commitments. Waukesha County is the heart of Wisconsin Republicans, voting for Walker by a margin of 72 percent to 26 percent in the 2014 general election. (Politico)

As Scott Walker cross-crosses the globe, Walker's repeated stomping on job-creating opportunities has even this most-conservative of writers fed-up.

"[Walker] charges you for those 'trade missions,' too, and they can’t be cheap. How about a trade mission to Kenosha?," asks Kennedy.