Posted on 09/21/2015 4:26:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
When Gov. Scott Walker took the stage last Wednesday for the second Republican debate, it was amid popular opinion that the onetime poll leader needed a strong showing to regain his form.
Yet many in the media are questioning whether Walker delivered that type of performance, with commentators throughout the state and nation wondering if the governor was able to convey his ideas when he had the least speaking time of the 11 candidates.
Walker campaign manager Rick Wiley said his candidate looked strong in his brief sparring with current front-runner Donald Trump and that his message came across even when he wasn’t speaking.
"Gov. Walker wore his Harley boots tonight, and it showed ... He put Donald Trump in his place early on, and the billionaire never recovered," Wiley said in a statement following the debate. "Even when he wasn’t speaking, Walker’s ideas … dominated the discussion.”
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza disagreed, writing that Walker’s presence at the debate was almost nonexistent.
“If anyone needed a moment (or three) in this debate, it was the Wisconsin governor. He didn't get one,” Cillizza wrote immediately after the debate. “Despite a relatively prime stage position -- he was standing next to Jeb Bush in the center-right of the stage -- Walker was sort of a nonentity. He needed to make headlines; he didn't.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley noted that while Walker was more aggressive than in the first debate, other candidates were more adept at breaking in to make points.
“Walker wasn't as successful with this strategy as some others,” Marley wrote. “By contrast, former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina and others often refused to be cut off.”
Still, despite Walker’s polling numbers continuing to dwindle, Harry Enten, a political analyst for fivethirtyeight.com, said that he has time to make up ground before primary season hits.
“It’s September 2015. The Iowa caucus is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2016. Unless Walker is running out of money, it’s not that dire,” Enten said during a live blog of the debate.
.... Which is frankly fortunate for the left, because I still hold to the position..Walker would still probably be one of the GOP’s most dangerous general election candidates—and one of their most vicious and destructive presidents.
It goes to show once again that politics at the presidential level is dominated less by candidate records, policy positions and bases of support, and more by charisma, authenticity and demeanor. It’s just the nature of the beast."
Meltdown mystery: GOP voters still like Scott Walker as poll numbers near zero - "One of the oddities of Scott Walker’s polling collapse is that his image among GOP voters remains fairly positive...
Why pay attention to these image ratings, when the horse race numbers get so much more attention?
Gallup has been tracking them because history shows the horse race numbers at this stage of the nominating process can change dramatically. And those numbers are often shaped as much by how well known candidates are — and how much attention they’re getting — as by the judgments voters are making about them.
A candidate with high negatives (as Donald Trump has had in many polls) can lead in the horse race if he or she has a strong core of support. That’s especially true in a large field where the vote is fragmented. But that candidate may have little room to grow when the field shrinks.
A candidate with lower negatives and broader acceptability in their party (like Walker and Rubio) can lag in the polls if they’re not generating interest and excitement. But they may have more potential to grow if they later gain traction.
“No measure at this point tells you what’s going to happen in the future. We think we can do a better job at this stage asking people their opinion of the candidates rather than focusing on the horse race,” says Gallup pollster Frank Newport.
“What we watch (in public polls) is, ‘Where is his favorable, where is his unfavorable?’” said Walker strategist Ed Goeas in a recent interview. “In survey after survey after survey, with the exception of Ben Carson, (Walker) has the second best favorable/unfavorable ratio of all the candidates. If, in fact, this was something of voters reacting negatively to him, you would see his negatives going up and his positives going down.”
Walker has had lower negatives than many of his rivals — lower than Republicans such as Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In theory, that gives him a higher ceiling...."
He should have stood on his tippy-toes for the photo.
He’s a good man, did great things as governor, not up to the top job.
I hope President Trump hires him as labor secretary
President Walker will dismantle this Labor Department.
At least we know he isn’t pro union.
I like Walker, but this is reality..my own theory:
This election has two possible outcomes, Trump or a democrat as president.
If Trump wins the nomination, he will win president.
If Trump loses the nomination, Hillary or any one of the other rats will win president.
The reason for this will be because the GOP will find a way to get jebbie nominated or they will work 24x7 to sabotage any non establishment nominee. If Cruz or Walker through some miracle got the nomination, they would NEVER be allowed to finish. If the GOP gets jebbie or another preferred establishment candidate nominated, they will be the candidate that stands for nothing and they will LOSE big time.
I think what so many people are clamoring for now is a repudiation against the status quo machine. I think this is why none of the PC crap about xenophobia about Trump and illegals, or calling Carly “unfortunate looking (my words)” etc.
IOW, fire in your belly, rage against the machine. Walker doesn't have it IMO, but he's still a very good man and conservative. I'm sure he'd do his best and go forth with good works. But I want Obama’s works UNDONE first. I don't think he'd do that because he couldn't work the deal magic with RINO GOP leadership OR the media. Damn few of the candidates up there could - and that includes Cruz because of the hatred he's engendered from RINO leadership and Congress as a whole.
I'm personally hoping for Cruz’ numbers and status to go up, but that may not happen - as with Walker and Fiorino. But it is a very good sign that Trump has pulled some of the candidates out of the PC response stupor and gave them a set of balls (e.g., as with Carson and his stance against a Muslim President). In the end, the irate and disgruntled conservatives are going to have to send Congress and the media a message they cannot mistake like the tsunami we gave them in 2014 and take for "more business as usual." We're gonna have to slap'em upside the head with a two-by-four - HARD.
However you want to see it, frame it, slice, dice and sell it, Trump is clearing the path for a Jeb Bush presidency.
Walker is the one conservative (the executive who’s done what he said) who the Establishment and the Left want out of the running the most.
Governor Walker made reference to Congressman Paul Ryan as a ‘great reformer’ in recent weeks and I don’t buy that.
Ryan has spoken of a plan to balance a budget in ten years.
That’s the same trick that was pulled by George W. Bush on education with No Child Left Behind, telling people there would be 100 percent proficiency in reading and math in 10 years. That didn’t happen in 2014 as promised.
The federal budget needs to be balanced yesterday but the Republicans are unable-unwilling to do it.
Republican leaders like Boehner and McConnell routinely push through constant increases in our national debt ceiling.
More money to be borrowed from Arabs, Chinese, big banks etc. etc. etc.
Austerity plans of other nations in Europe don’t balance budgets either and increase debt ceilings, borrowing from the banks. The banks get the benefit of a steady stream of debt covering payments from the people of the US, Canada and Europe.
>> President Walker will dismantle this Labor Department.
I see you have signed President Walker to your Fantasy Administration team! I’m sure he’ll do great and wonderful things in the Fantasy US Government game you’re playing with your like-minded friends.
However, back in the Real World...
I think Walker is gonna surprise people in Iowa by finishing top three there.
I think Trump will also surprise people in Iowa by not finishing top three.
It doesn't seem that Walker has defined where he is on the political spectrum. He campaigns as an outsider, but doesn't seem to have any bond with the outsiders. Would Walker benefit from four or eight more years defining himself and more fully owning his views?
Jeb will never win the presidency, many people like me will stay home rather than vote for an establishment GOP democrat. My point is that Trump is the only republican that doesn’t have to play the GOP’s game and can break through and actually win. In fact, the jiggering the GOP did to the primary delegates to favor jebbie are actually going to help Trump.
Walker and Cruz are young men, this is not their time, they are good men who can serve in other very important ways under Trump.
He’s a good man, did great things as governor, not up to the top job.
I hope President Trump hires him as labor secretary
The rabid Left who battled Walker and lost do not agree with your assessment.
Wifey, get back on your meds, there are no green aliens coming to vote for Walker, and he is polling at 1%<.
Walker can't attract rational voters because he changed his position on ANCHOR BABIES.
You have NEVER answered those questions that I've continually raised about Walker. You may ignore them, others don't.
You’re of course speaking of Wisconsin, even though national labor unions aligned against him on a limited battlefield. It is/will be a different story dealing with our own traitorous GOPe leadership. Nice guy but he isn’t my pick to realign the GOP.
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