Scott Walker's Underappreciated Strengths

Scott Walker has a bundle of connected political virtues – a strength that will remain largely hidden but which will become increasingly apparent as his public career unfolds. Most presidential candidates fail and most presidents in office fail. Walker will not be among that gaggle of losers. He will, instead, be among that select number of presidential winners.

Consider the two most politically successful presidents since the end of the Second World War: Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Eisenhower and Reagan won every election in which they were candidates. Both men won their first presidential election with a majority of the popular vote and an electoral landslide.

Eisenhower in 1952 swept Republicans into control of both Houses of Congress while Reagan in 1980 gave Republicans control of the Senate and huge gains in the House. Eisenhower in 1956 and Reagan in 1984 won reelection by bigger landslides than the first time around. When these two men left office after eight years, they were genuinely popular among the American people.

Conservatives need not laud the policies of Eisenhower, who was definitely a RINO, but Eisenhower was very effective in actually implementing his policies. Reagan, who we all love, was as successful in implementing his policies as any president since Eisenhower; and more than that, Reagan was more successful implementing conservative policies than anyone in American history. Walker naturally possesses those qualities that made Eisenhower and Reagan successful presidents.

Was DDE a RINO by the GOP standards of the 1950s? Even then I would think that the party demarcation was still on the basis of class rather than ideology, with most Dems for labor and most Reps for management and small business; the GOP doesn't split into the establishment and conservative branches until the 60s, and the Democrats don't all turn leftist until the 80s.

Maybe Taft, the “conservative” opposition to Eisenhower in the Republican primary/convention, might correspond best to a modern libertarian/Paulista? I was pretty young when that debate was going on - and in those days journalism was similarly biased, but didn’t get called out nearly as much as now.
In historical fact, what we now call a RINO describes pretty much every Republican before Kemp-Roth became Republican orthodoxy as “Reagan Kemp Roth.” Including li’l ole me. It was a revelation when Kemp asserted that we were on the wrong side of (what is now known as) the Laffer Curve.
In addition, Eisenhower nominated Justice Brennan to SCOTUS. It was supposed by conservatives that that was a blunder, but in retrospect it is clear that Eisenhower knew what he was doing, and did it on purpose.
Eisenhower was so popular that both parties importuned him to head their ticket. The Republicans hadn’t had a president for 20 years, and they were desperate for a winner. But it was too soon after the Civil War yet for the Republicans to run a “southern strategy” as Nixon finally did in 1968 - scandalously, in the minds of reporters and liberals.
There were five things that went wrong for Nixon in 1960 any one of which, in the opinion of his biographer, might have turned the election in Nixon’s favor. And one of them was the fact that Eisenhower, still nursing his high popularity, didn’t throw any of his weight behind Nixon. It’s a shame nobody told Eisenhower that seeing your sitting VP win election to POTUS puts you in an elite group of presidents with George Washington and Andrew Jackson, and - nobody, up ’til Reagan in 1988.

In addition, Eisenhower nominated Justice Brennan to SCOTUS. It was supposed by conservatives that that was a blunder, but in retrospect it is clear that Eisenhower knew what he was doing, and did it on purpose.

The choice of both Brennan and Warren was made for political reasons, and Eisenhower specifically said that he'd rec'd very faulty information on Brennan's ideological leanings. Ike considered them two of his biggest mistakes.

Citation

I see Brennan (and Warren) as being similar to GHW Bush's appointment of David Souter. Bush was misled. Now, as President he (and Eisenhower) bear full responsibility as it was their duty to take a good hard look at their nominees for themselves and not to blindly follow the advice of advisers. But that's a far cry from deliberately placing any of them on the Court intentionally.

Your reaction is why I don’t think Cruz would be a good first place candidate. I think he needs to be the VP and prove himself to those that aren’t sold on him. The main problem, in my opinion, is that we have had 70 years of the liberals subtly putting thoughts/notions/feelings into our heads. Cruz has the right ideas but then that “PC” mentality kicks in and we all look around hoping nobody saw it, we need to get past that, give all the lazy SOB’s a swift kick in the seat of the pants and get down to business.

Scott Walker could make a good president. As I've said, he isn't my first choice but if he is the nominee I could vote for him without having to hold my nose, as I did last time around. But to annoint him the next Ronald Reagan does a disservice to both men.

I like both Walker and Cruz. I do think that Cruz is more like Reagan than Walker, though.

Just being out and about in my small, very conservative little NV town, people are not resonating with Cruz. They see him as grandstanding and unyielding..... much the same as Reagan when he was CA Gov.

What a powerful ticket we'd have with these two. I really excited and hope we eliminate Bush and Co. and clear a path for Cruz/Walker or Walker/Cruz.

What a powerful ticket we'd have with these two. I really excited and hope we eliminate Bush and Co. and clear a path for Cruz/Walker or Walker/Cruz.

That's our best hope for not only winning, but actually starting to roll back the nonsense of the past two decades. I think it would be the best of starts in reclaiming America for its founding principles.

Now if we could only stop the circular firing squad here from taking them both out and giving us Jeb.........

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