Business Insider: Burn Rate and Policy Ignorance Doomed Walker, Not God

Maxwell Tani at The Business Insider offers a redux of the Scott Walker collapse.

Tani paints a picture of the grandiosity of Walker's ego, a stunning lack of policy knowledge leading first the donors and then the staff and Republican voters to abandon Gov. Lightweight.

Tani notes without comment Walker's line in his I'm-quitting address last week: "Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately."

So god moonlights as a Republican Party strategist and calls out Republican candidates for the nomination as they injure the Party with their candidacies?

It wasn't god, it was the burn-rate of money and Walker's lack of knowledge that drove Walker to get out ASAP.

Tani is easier on Walker's know-nothingism than other national political writers:

But regardless of campaign-staff problems, Walker wasn't helped by his own demeanor on the trail. He stepped into several high-profile gaffes that critics and some analysts say showed his shakiness on policy issues and his naïveté as a governor.

Walker struggled to answer questions about whether he supported birthright citizenship, an issue on which he took three different positions in a single week, and the renewable-fuel standard, an ethanol subsidy that is a significant campaign issue in Iowa. He was also criticized for refusing to answer if he would accept more Syrian refugees as president, after saying that he didn't answer 'hypothetical' questions.

It wasn't Walker's "demeanor," the guy didn't know anything. The fact Walker was elected governor in GOP-friendly elections, (midterms and Recall), is a mark on the Wisconsin political culture.

The truth about Walker is he is a crooked former Milwaukee County Executive (2002-2010) who has built a disreputable public legacy playing on the worst of racism and misogyny, while too many Wisconsin people who should speak up, (or at least vote), remained silent.

So Walker is back in Wisconsin.

Scott Walker Postmortems Echo Wisconsin Critics

The big, the bold and the benighted, that's our governor.

The vast majority of Wisconsin citizens who did not vote for Scott Walker regarded him as one part corrupt, one part dishonest, one part dense and one part deluded.

Writers across the state bashed Walker for fun and profit since 2009.

The national political press is having some fun now with Walker as well.

From The Politico (Allen, Isenstadt):

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pulled the plug on a bloated campaign that was headed into debt and was being undermined by furious donors, a warring staff and — at the root of it all — a candidate who was badly out of his league.

From the New York Times (Bruni):

There’s so much we’ll never know [about Walker], such as how far he was willing to take his single issue. ... I feel certain that he was mere weeks away from a big speech advocating the deployment of ground troops to stamp out collective bargaining among the Sherpas in Nepal.

I feel certain, too, that his best gaffes were still to come, though he gave us several gems. In an era lacking visionary leadership, he envisioned a great wall along our northern border to keep out the tides of Canadians fleeing the tyranny of free health insurance. And we learned that years back, he mangled an intended 'mazel tov' in a letter to a Jewish constituent, instead writing: 'Thank you again and Molotov.'

And I wonder: Was it his shallowness that undid him? Just how little learning will Republican voters abide in a candidate?  ...

Walker evaded foreign policy questions, apparently petrified of being tripped up. He bungled domestic policy questions, seemingly unable to cling to a sturdy position.

Wisconsin, the some 74 percent who didn't vote for Scott Walker can take it all in now, this pathological lightweight is exposed for what he is.

Perhaps those Wisconsin rural citizens who care about thriving school districts and livable wages can do a rethink on Scott Walker.

Scott Walker Exits with Petulance

Scott Walker—exposed as a lightweight and humiliated on the national stage by uninformed responses to simple policy questions— has the Wisconsin people concerned, concerned he may take his frustrations out on Wisconsin (Mal Contends).

Scott Walker is not a normal, healthy person.

Rejected, Walker will do whatever is in his power to vandalize, toxify and inflict injury onto the Wisconsin people.

These are the actions of a sociopath.

Scott Walker—Your Homeland Is Calling

Hey Scott Walker,

You lied to us, repeatedly.

You stole from us.

You conned whole swaths of the Wisconsin citizenry.

You attacked educational institutions that took generations to build.

You attacked and still attack the Wisconsin Idea.

You bragged about diving and conquering the Wisconsin people.

You've attacked women, our black and brown fellows, the right to vote, our shared environment.

One can go on.

It's past time, and I'm not alone in this sentiment, you consider leaving Wisconsin and going back to your native Iowa, though any other place than Wisconsin will do.

Scott Walker Called by God to Quit

Scott Walker read the writing on the wall

Scott Walker announced he is leading by quitting, with God's "calling" him to step aside.

God reportedly spoke nine weeks after Scott Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

Disappointed campaign donors called the shots, and not God, though it is possible Walker was told, "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting."

A coward to the end, Scott Walker took no questions at his press conference late Monday afternoon in Madison.

"Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately," said Walker (TPM).

Scott Walker's Quitting Race Means Koch Bros Don't Rule

Scott Walker lied, and lied and lied.

A note of good cheer.

Scott Walker is a dolt, yes, we know this.

Walker's dropping out does means the Koch brothers don't get to choose who the next president is.

We do, if we wish to choose.

Don't stay home, get out and do something political.

The Scott Walkers of the world would go no further than a white state assembly district in Wisconsin.

NYT Report: Scott Walker Is Quitting

Easily intimidated

Scott Walker is quitting the presidential race for president, barely nine weeks since he officially declared, report Alexander Burns and Patrick Healy in the New York Times.

Walker is holding a press conference at 5:00 p.m. Central time, today.

Scott Walker Melted Down Because of Rational Fear

Craig Gilbert in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ponders what caused the sudden implosion of Scott Walker's run for the presidency in light of the favorable ratings Walker has among GOP voters in his policy positions.

Gilbert has been around and knows the campaign game, and what's odd is why he doesn't see the obvious cause of Walker's demise.

Republican and Tea Party voters are concerned that were Scott Walker the presidential nominee for the Party, Walker would be at the top of the ticket, he would be humiliated and risk a landslide in November 2016.

Scott Walker is not an ideas guy, is not a policy wonk, cannot think on his feet, and has no center.

Among Wisconsin political writers familiar with Walker, Walker has earned the moniker, 'the hollow man.'

Republican Party primary likely voters are bigoted, benighted and misogynistic.

They are not suicidal, notwithstanding recent bizarre events in the 2015-16 Republican Party campaign for the presidency.

Scott Walker Imlodes with a Whimper

Scott Walker flounders

The new presidential poll is out.

Mr. Walker, Zero.5 percent, less than .5 percent.

Corrupt, dumb and sleazy is no way to go through life, son.

You have wreaked havoc in Wisconsin, can't think on your feet, and you're ignorant of public affairs.

You're out, expelled, we do not want you in the process by which we elect a president any more. No more fun of any kind.

In July Walker emailed supporters: "This is God’s plan for me and I am humbled to be a candidate for President of the United States," (AmericaBlog).

God's mean.

Scott Walker—Rumors of Campaign Turmoil Amid Demise in Polls

Scott Walker's campaign chair, Rick Wiley, will be let go from the campaign because of top donor dissatisfaction with Walker's meltdown, and some donors are circulating an anonymous letter of condemnation alleging some unconfirmed misconduct on the part of Wiley, according to reports. (RedState) (Buzzfeed)

Wiley denies the reports on all counts (Opoien, The Capital Times).

Erick Erickson of RedState, a rightwing journal, runs a story on his site saying Wiley is on the way out, and "a lot more turmoil is on the horizon," and stands by his story.

Notes BuzzFeed:

The influential conservative talk radio host and blogger Erick Erickson appeared to allude to the whisper campaign [about Wiley] Thursday on Twitter: 'Lots of different people all sending me the same rumor about a particular campaign manager caught indecently at the Ohio debate.'

Sleazy way to treat a strategist and Walker loyalist whom Walker hired less than two months ago.

One wonders if Walker will stick up for Wiley and make a statement that any donors trash-talking Wiley can leave the campaign.