Posted on 09/22/2015 4:43:06 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Every presidential cycle rewrites the conventional wisdom about politics, and this one is no different. The iron rule that has now been broken is this: Governors make the best candidates.
So much for iron rules.
Scott Walker, by leagues the most successful sitting Republican governor in the country, just exited the presidential race — two weeks after Rick Perry, the most successful Republican governor of the 21st century thus far, quit his second bid.
Things don’t look great for the remaining state executives either. John Kasich, the fascinating governor of Ohio, is pleasing the liberal media but seems determined to annoy the conservatives who make up the party’s base. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, is still in the mix, but looks to be headed back to Baton Rouge sooner rather than later.
Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, did well in last week’s debate, but then and now has no visible path to the nomination — and the big-blustery-personality-guy space that should have been his alone has instead been filled by Donald Trump.
This was not the way anyone expected this to go. Perhaps the major reason Republicans were excited about their party’s prospects in the next election was precisely that the party’s gubernatorial bench had gotten so deep.
~snip~
Governors, by contrast, are executives with clear report cards they can show as part of their job interview. And they can also claim to be above and beyond the diseased partisan fray in Washington, as George W. Bush did successfully in 2000: “I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the past few years,” he said.
~snip~
To be an outsider, at the present moment, you really need to come from the outside. The presidency is becoming an entry-level job. God help us.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Thoughtful post mortem of Walker’s campaign. It’s worth reading the whole thing.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Walker is another mild-mannered Midwesterner. He is a TPaw with more conservatism but less principle.
And what about Perry?
Nothing new here.
Walker has plenty of principle. T-Paw never showed me anything.
Ping to me for later.
Walker was (and is) an overambitious weathervane for the GOPe and his donors.
Two years ago he was for screaming open borders, then in the campaign he tried to sound tough on immigration by saying he’d consider domestic workers—but then not coming out with any policy to back it up.
He was done in by repeatedly sounding mushy while reversing himself as he tried to calculate the most calculating position to take.
THen further proving he’s completely owned by Reince Priebus, he attacked Trump on his way out.
TPaw is a very decent guy who was not only mild-mannered in his affect, but also in his positions.
State Governors are USUALLY more successful because they have experience dealing with a hostile press and real opponents, whereas the Senate seems to be a chummy country-club that constantly produces “get-along wimps” (for example, Dole, McCain, Graham) - and anybody that doesn’t play by those chummy rules is ostracized (Cruz).
Trump got his experience with hostile press and political opponents in the business world, but that doesn’t make it any less useful now. New York City is a good boot camp!
“To be an outsider, at the present moment, you really need to come from the outside. The presidency is becoming an entry-level job. God help us.”
Given that the lucre and power that comes from holding office draws charlatans and criminals like dung draws flies, we would probably be better off with random lotteries for leaders than these periodic popularity contests for the most convincing sociopath. It is a good thing the “professionals” are so generally despised at long last.
FFS, John Kaisch isn’t “fascinating” to ANYONE but GOPe types and northern OH Republicans. Wow.
“The presidency is becoming an entry-level job. God help us.”
You know, because all of these “experienced” people have done so well?
He wasn’t on the sde of the citizens and the rule of law.
He proved that when he spouted Cheap Labor Express talking points on his exit.
One year ago, if asked I would have said Walker or Perry were the best two possible candidates on the horizon. Good God Almighty, was I wrong!
It is amazing what a few speeches, two debates and most important, the information available via the internet can do to help one make a decision.
We still have a long way to go, but I really wonder what next September will be like.
I was not aware that 2008 was the first time you had a sitting senator vs. a sitting senator.
It is true that Jefferson and the Adamses had extensive government service in a wide variety of jobs. I think it's safe to say that even though he paid down the debt, Jefferson was not considered a great president. His Embargo Act nearly bankrupted the country, and you could say his kid glove treatment of the Brits helped provoke the War of 1812. He did well with the Barbary Pirates, but submitted an astonishing $20 MILLION (that's right, double the size of the whole fed budget) "public works" program.
Madison and Monroe both had extensive experience in elected positions, but Hamilton had little (and may have been a player had not Burr killed him).
Lincoln has a very short term in the US Congress, a decade before he ran for the presidency.
All that said, back then it was MUCH different: even the most activist officials spent only a small portion of their time doing their government jobs. John Adams left Washington DC as many times and as fast as he could.
But, with the exception of Adams, almost all of these men also had pretty solid private sector experience, mostly on farms and plantations. Even Adams, a lawyer, had a farm. So they knew the private sector.
THAT, not "experience in government," is getting to be the sticking point. We have way, way too many people in government who have never held a "real" job except, perhaps, law. They have no idea whatsoever of meeting payrolls, paying taxes, regulatory burdens, IRS audits, Labor Department intrusions, etc.
Governors-as-Presidents have been a mixed bag: Carter was a failure, Reagan a success, Bush 43 and Clinton somewhere in the middle.
Moreover, there have been those for whom the Presidency was their first political position, but they had previous executive experience, such as Grant and Eisenhower being generals.
Point well taken. And in more modern times, we have Eisenhower,
Georgie Will could never get him over the hump. Maybe the experts are all wrong?
Pray America is waking
One of the reasons that Republican governors could win in the past was that the party more or less represented the interests of their base.
The problem with governors, overall, is that they are elected to RUN A STATE, no small task. It’s not easy to find 4 to 6 hours a day to read FreeRepublic while you’re doing that. So they rely on others (i.e., party insiders) to tell them what the country wants - and sometimes (or usually, actually) those people have their own agendas. It was CLEAR AS DAYLIGHT with Walker, who never had a chance to try to understand immigration while up there in Wisconsin...so he got rolled by Ms. Dayspring and Mrs. Will, and it was OBVIOUS to us.
One last thought: Walker's timing is good. Word is he just avoided getting tied to a very bad story that could well have been coming.
George Will needs to have his wife go back and rework those fabulous IA internal polling numbers that had Walker 'leading'.
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