Huff Po: Scott Walker Needs Wisconsin Win To Vie For Presidential Nomination: Analysis

[Scuba]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/26/scott-walker-wisconsin_n_4670094.html

MADISON, Wisconsin, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Over the past year Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, has worked his way down a checklist of items commonly associated with a run at the U.S. presidency. He has written a campaign-themed book and visited Iowa, New Hampshire and other pivotal election-year states. He has stumped for candidates nationwide. He even has criticized conservatives who challenge moderate incumbents, pleasing party elders.

With a growing pre-presidential checklist, it is little wonder Walker is beginning to emerge as a top-tier candidate in a potentially crowded field in 2016. But first, he must win a tough reelection race in 2014, against Democratic businesswoman Mary Burke, his only announced opponent.

...

Walker is best known nationally for turning back a recall vote in 2012 after his battle with the state employee unions. His surprisingly strong 53 percent to 46 percent margin against a well-organized union effort won him followers among conservatives nationwide.

The recall campaign also helped Walker build a national fundraising apparatus that could prove helpful in the 2014 election and beyond. He raised $37 million to defeat the recall, a substantial figure for a Wisconsin candidate, and as of last June had $2.26 million cash on hand for his campaign. The figure will be updated on Jan. 31.

Well, he is a proven winner ...




A successful fundraiser ...




A protector of the priviledged ...




Who's loyalty is unquestioned ...

[GP6971]

1. What a disaster that would be

him getting the Repuke nomination.

[Half-Century Man]

2. So, if we torpedo him now, we don't have to worry about a national venue.

Excellent. I love the smell of immolated ambition.
Can we make go back to selling IBM (Lenovo) warranties? Be kinda fun to find him running a cash register at Best Buy in a couple years.

[Scuba]

3. Squatty's next gig will be on Fox "News". His smarmy, dishonest cocksuredness will be welcome there.

[Half-Century Man]

17. What ever happened to the "John Doe" investigations?

I want his next gig to be mopping floors in the Racine Correctional Institution.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Last poll I saw had Walker winning by like two points over Burke...

Those margins are not good for a candidate's reelection a year out (it was taken on October, I believe). Without Burke even really starting her campaign, I think Walker is in trouble.

[Scuba]

5. Unless Burke does some serious campaigning in the next 8 months, Walker will win going away.

I don't know anybody here who is excited about Burke. Yes, our side wants to beat Walker, but that was true in June, 2012 too.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Maybe...but the fact he's only up two suggests otherwise.

[Scuba]

7. He's been two up forever. No one in this State is going to change his/her mind about Walker.

That's why Burke (or, hopefully, a more progressive candidate) is going to have to win votes from the half of the electorate who don't bother to vote because neither Party offers them squat ("Why bother voting? They're all the same.&quot .

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Those people are the reason "they're all the same".

If politicians feared the electorate, they'd actually fight knowing the people would hold 'em accountable. Why should Walker or Burke care about anyone who's already decided they're not going to vote because they see 'em as a different side of the same coin? Their cynicism is a direct factor in why politicians today all the same. Hell, if I knew they weren't voting, I wouldn't pander to 'em, either.

[Scuba]

9. Why? To win the election, that's why. Give them a reason to vote. Show them a difference.

"Not the Republican" is not a very effective message, especially when anyone who digs in finds little difference in policy.

[Drunken Irishman]

10. They still wouldn't vote...

There is always an excuse from those people. The candidate didn't speak to my values. The candidate was boring. They didn't inspire. I don't care who you throw up there, you're still going to have a significant amount of people who see the whole system as corrupt and the same.

Just look at the Massachusetts election with Elizabeth Warren. It's why guys like Russ Feingold and Alan Grayson lose (before his comeback), even though they're generally liberal warriors. For a huge segment of our country, the people who haven't even bothered to register to vote, it doesn't matter who you run - they're not going to vote because they've already made up their mind.

It is what it is.

If these people really think Walker and Burke are absolutely a mirror image of each other, then they deserve Walker.

[Scuba]

11. I disagree vehemently.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. A lot of people do. That's fine...

But nothing can change if you remove yourself from the fight. People who don't vote do exactly that.

[Scuba]

13. And candidates who don't try to appeal to HALF THE ELECTORATE are fools.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. Not fools at all...

Why appeal to a fickle bunch who, on a whim, decide you're not worth the fight or the vote? It happens all the time. A progressive fights the good fight, wins some battles, does something significant and then, after a while, they're tossed to the curb like an old Christmas tree. Russ Feingold was not a sellout or a DINO - but that didn't stop you guys from not voting for him and electing a tea-party loon in his place. You're a fool for not going after the voters who show up EVERY election because guess what? They're the ones who decide it.

It's interesting, though, that Obama, the supposed corporate Republican lackey parading around as a Democrat, did better in Wisconsin statewide than any recent Democrat outside Herb Kohl.

[Scuba]

19. You're hilarious. Going after the voters who show up every time will decide it?

If they're going to show up every time, why waste energy going after them?

[warrant46]

15. What's to be Excited about Burke ?

She has little dirty laundry= But she's got to get off her Tookus and Campaign.

Every day scum bag walker is on TV for at least 10 minutes. Today he is on TV trying (as a humanitarian) to get propane for the poor freezing masses, the humanitarian that he isn't.

But by the time the voting starts a hundred million dollars (mostly from Charles and David Koch) will determine the winner.

[yeoman6987]

18. I think Walker is in trouble.

I would be very careful to underestimate Walker. I thought for sure he was a goner with the recall. I mean EVERYONE wanted him gone except the voters and the voters gave him a healthy win. I could never understand it at all.

[Cha]

16. Go Wisconsin.. get rid of that threat

to Democracy.. this year!!

[DefenseLawyer]

20. As I heard Stephanie Miller say the other day

He looks like someone hit him in the head with a 2x4 right before the camera came on.



Durrrrrrrrrrr....

Come on Wisconsin! You're better than that!