Scott Walker wasn’t unlucky. He was clueless. OUCH

[riversedge]

Scott Walker wasn’t unlucky. He was clueless.

By Stephen Stromberg September 21 at 9:10 PM
Walker suspends presidential run
Play Video2:04
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced Monday that he was suspending his campaign for the White House, urging other candidates to follow suit. (Reuters)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/09/21/scott-walker-wasnt-unlucky-he-was-clueless/


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But it would be a mistake to just blame Trump for Walker’s political demise. Even the relatively mild scrutiny applied to Walker’s run revealed him for what he really is: a man who has not thought much outside of his narrow experience and who fumbled when reporters asked him to do so. The result was candidate who was intellectually and strategically adrift. He didn’t seem to know how he felt on a range of issues, and, in the absence of sincere positions, he didn’t seem to know how far right he wanted to run. All of this made his bluster about being a “fighter” who is “unintimidated” seem embarrassingly inappropriate.

Walker floundered on foreign policy, lamely claiming that his experience standing up to public sector unions in Wisconsin showed he had the mettle to stand up to foreign threats. He attempted to cover for previously moderate statements on immigration by clumsily lurching right, even seeming to suggest that there should be fewer legal immigrants. He took several confusing positions on birthright citizenship over the course of a few days. He refused to say whether he favored allowing more Syrian refugees into the country because the question was “hypothetical.” When he got around to answering, he tacked toward callousness, saying that he didn’t want to let any more refugees in. But at that point, who would have believed that he had really thought about it?

As his campaign sputtered, Walker returned to the only issue he seemed to know: organized labor. He proposed a national crackdown on unions that included scrapping the National Labor Relations Board. This was supposed to re-excite the goodwill he had generated among conservatives during his showdowns with public sector workers over the last few years. Instead, it proved he was one-dimensional.

Walker didn’t need Trump to fail. He didn’t just have bad luck. He couldn’t be any more than he is: walking proof that a combative style, a hard ideological edge and identity-based pandering can’t always make up for cluelessness. The conservatives who championed Walker should have expected more. The Republican Party needs more..........................

[randys1]

1. He's a teapartier, typical know nothing, filled with hate, moron.

Koch Bros arent rich because they are smart, they are rich because they are greedy and dont give a flying fuck who dies to make them rich.

Scott Walker isnt successful in politics because he is thoughtful, smart, brave or intelligent.

He is successful because he is willing to lie, cheat and steal to get what he wants and what he wants is money and power and not another fucking thing.

[R. P. McMurphy]

2. Excellent assessment. eom

[brush]

3. Yep, clueless as thinking screwing unions equates with dealing with ISIS.

What a maroon.

[Angry Dragon]

4. The crowd was going wild

as they watched Scott Walker slide down into the bowels of Hell

[sybylla]

5. And if it weren't for the complicity of the WI media, he'd have been toast long ago.

But he was the darling of the conservative Urinal Sentinel from his time in county government and every major paper in WI followed their lead and got on the endorsement bus in 2010, and again in the recalls of 2011 and 2012. Some even swallowed hard and endorsed him again in 2014.

The media went into CYA mode, unwilling to admit that they endorsed a shit-licking idiot who turned out (as Democrats warned) to be the tool of billionaires intent on destroying the state and absconding with everything they could.

Motherfuckers.

Scott Walker is what happens when media making money and selling papers and beknighting candidates who will help line their own wealthy owner's/stockholder's pockets decides to stop investigating and reporting the truth and to stop fulfilling its obligations to the people and to good order.

Walker's presidential campaign showed them for the self-serving idiots they are. But, chances are most voters will forget that by the time these circle-jerking editorial boards endorse again next summer.

[lutefisk]

6. next summer?

"...endorse again next summer"

Is there a recall brewing or did you mean "next election"?

[sybylla]

7. Next summer is next election.

We will be bombarded with ads and endorsements for the idiots currently in charge. The equivalent of an endorsement for a conservative status quo and another back door endorsement of Wanker.