Posted on 02/12/2015 11:14:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Mitt Romney announced on Jan. 30 that he would not run for President in 2016, and immediately the commentariate ordained Jeb Bush the big winner. Bush was Romney’s heir, a thousand wagging tongues proclaimed. The donors would fall to him, and with them would go the Republican establishment, then the voters. The Republicans had a “frontrunner.”
If there is a 2016 frontrunner for the GOP, he achieved that status six days before Romney’s announcement. On that day, Sat., Jan. 24, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered a speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, It vaulted him into the “top tier” of 2016 hopefuls.
Since Romney’s announcement, Walker has placed first in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. In some other polls in those early states, he placed in the top two or three. But a close look at the polls shows that Walker was rising before Romney’s exit.The WMUR-UNH poll, released Feb. 5, was conducted from Jan. 22-Feb. 3. Romney dropped out nine days into the poll. Bush did gain five points after Romney dropped out, moving from 12 percent to 17 percent. But Walker, with far less name recognition, was the only other contender to garner double digits both before (11 percent) and after (12 percent) Romney dropped out.
Walker achieved second place even though 46 percent of those polled said they did not know enough about him to form an opinion of him. Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee tied for third with 9 percent each. Yet each is vastly better known than Walker. The percentage of respondents who said they did not know enough about the candidate to form an opinion was 12 percent for Paul, 13 for Christie and 14 for Huckabee.
An automated New Hampshire poll by NH1 conducted Feb. 2-3 put Walker first with 21 percent, followed by Bush with 14 percent. The January NH1 poll had Walker at 8 percent. The speech had moved the numbers.
A Des Moines Register poll conducted the week after Walker’s Freedom Summit speech found him in first with 15 percent. Rand Paul pulled 14 percent and Bush was in single digits with 8 percent. In that poll, 60 percent viewed Walker favorably and only 12 percent unfavorably. In the WMUR poll, his numbers were 39 percent favorable and 9 percent unfavorable. So far, the Republican voters who know of Scott Walker like him — a lot.
What does that mean? Whether Walker is genuinely connecting with Republican voters or they are projecting their desires onto him (I think the former), his surge reveals a hunger on the right for an anti-Obama. So far (and it’s early), Scott Walker has made the strongest claim to that title.
Conservatives have hungered for a new Ronald Reagan since 1988. One reason that no Reagan heir has emerged — aside from the obvious fact that Reagan was a rare figure of Rushmore proportions — is that he changed the terms of the debate.
No small-government, reform conservative has won the Republican presidential nomination since Reagan in part because a lot of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, comfortable in the post-Reagan economy, did not feel that further radical reforms were necessary. After six years of Obama trying to build “The Great Society II: Insolvency Boogaloo,” a lot of Republicans feel like the party needs a champion to reform a dysfunctional, corrupt, opressive Washington. There is a sense that it is 1979 all over again. Walker, with victory after victory against the machinery of big government in Wisconsin, speaks to that longing.
In his Freedom Summit speech, Walker said the Republicans must go big and go bold. “If you get the job done, the voters will actually stand up with ya,” he said. It was a refrain. “We did what we said we were going to do. We got the job done.”
Republicans talk about Walker’s toughness. That was on exhibit when he chose as his Freedom Summit entrance music the Dropkick Murphys song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” Hardcore. Speaking of his love for the Green Bay Packers, he said, “I love listening to the Bears radio the day after the Packers have beaten the Bears.” That is “Wisconsin nice” for Conan the Barbarian’s answer to the Mongol general’s question, “What is best in life?” Conan: “Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.”
At the end of the Obama presidency, Republicans will have spent eight years being lectured, ridiculed, taunted and targeted by the President who repeatedly dismissed them by saying, “I won.” They want to replace him with a President who will dismantle every Obama success and wipe his legacy away. Many see in Walker someone who will not talk about doing that, but actually do it.
C-SPAN recorded the Iowa Freedom Summit and posted online separate videos of each speaker. As of Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Ted Cruz’ speech had 2,001 views, Dr. Ben Carson’s 1,104, Donald Trump’s 832, Chris Christie’s 355, and Rick Santorum’s 116. Scott Walker’s had 17,443.
Right now, Walker is connecting with Republican voters who want not just to win in 2016, but to send to Washington a fighter who will do to Obamaism what Reagan did to Carterism. Is Walker the man for the job? I don’t know. To paraphrase an old trope about the primary, I haven’t met him even once, much less three times. But there is no denying that today, two days before Valentine’s Day, he is making a lot of Republican hearts flutter.
New budget round in Wisconsin, and already the liberal knives are out about Gov Walker’s budget cuts. Of course, it is a two prong attack - liberals targeting liberals about how much these budgets are hurting them, and then targeting conservatives with ‘look at those deficits’ messages and still bitterness about giving money back to the taxpayers.
That’s their money, not the peoples, and they’ll spend it one way or another (agency requests, of course, are where the budget deficit lives, many agencies still under liberal control.)
The Democrat Secretary of State is also rather peeved about being moved to the basement of the capital building, and having his staff cut in half. Why, who’d do the work when someone goes on vacation???
So, yeah, having stood up to the union backed recall election, and still keeping on track even with a presidential campaign in the distance, he’s certainly attracted my attention.
He’s surging, and the left is out to destroy him.
It’s early days when the front runner has 20% support, but Walker is certainly an interesting candidate. You can’t call him spineless, that’s for sure. He also has a mix of issues that could make him attractive to the subset of fiscal conservatives who are more moderate on social issues, as well as to the all-around conservatives.
I’m on Cruz control and my ticket would be Cruz/Walker, but with this one, I could switch hit.
Too bad they both want more Mehhiccans imported—so as to take any NEW jobs that might be created.
(Just like the last six years or so.)
And they have some of their useful-idiot helpers right here on FR....
Walker: The more the left tries to attack him, the better leader he looks.
Other than an out right revolution, who or what do you want?
You are insane with hate against everyone from Mexico, and you have no positive comments about any one that is running for President.
What is your solution?
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