Posted on 09/12/2015 11:07:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
AMES, Iowa — The stage, the heat and the drunk college kids they faced were the same. But the receptions Scott Walker and Donald Trump received when they stumped together at the same Iowa event Saturday couldn't have been more different — or revealing.
The tailgate party scene at the annual Iowa State vs. University of Iowa football game was tailor-made for the Wisconsin governor, a football fan who's at his retail politicking-best when playing the Midwestern everyman role. Desperate to regain his footing after plummeting from front-runner to near-cellar-dweller in Iowa in the span of just two months, there was no better place to connect with hordes of voters Saturday than at Jack Trice Stadium, where the annual battle for state bragging rights known as the Cy-Hawk showdown took place.
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. But Walker was nearly inaudible in his remarks, the fault of too-weak speakers in the tailgate tent. It didn't matter much anyway: it quickly became apparent that many of the hundreds of attendees who had packed into and around the tent, sponsored by the Iowa GOP, couldn’t see the main stage, and thought — and hoped — they were watching Trump instead.
“We want Trump! We want Trump!” chanted a pocket of students to Walker’s left as he spoke.
On his right, as Walker wrapped up, a woman warned a group of people who were pushing toward the front to calm down. Trump, she said, wasn’t here yet.
His day didn't get any better when he wended his way through the crowd after the speech — he faced tough, skeptical questioning from several voters over teacher pay, ethanol and global poverty. One voter mistook him for Marco Rubio.
When Trump finally arrived at the event, an hour or so after he was expected, he was hard to hear too — but it didn’t matter, because he was drowned out by a shrieking mob that surged toward him when he arrived, causing attendees to fall into each other and setting off a car alarm in the frenzy. Anti-Trump protestors had been waiting to take him on for hours, but they couldn’t break through the packed crowd. The real estate mogul took the stage to chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and, impersonating a composer, he waved his hands in encouragement. He stayed under five minutes, leaving no time for in-depth questions, but enough for handshakes. He left attendees marveling at his appearance, with one half-jokingly asking his friend whether he’d ever wash his hand again after shaking Trump’s.
“That was better than the game!” exclaimed one attendee.
“That guy’s worth a billion dollars!” said another, leading others to speculate that it was much more.
Interviews with more than a dozen attendees at the event in Ames, and at an earlier Trump rally in Boone, Iowa, which drew hundreds, indicate that many turned up just out of curiosity, as several put it, interested to hear from the reality TV star in person and excited about the spectacle, but not necessarily committed to voting for him. But many others said they were seriously considering Trump, if they were not with him already.
Whatever their reasons for showing up, it was also clear that Walker, once considered near-unbeatable in Iowa, has not found a way to break through in the new Trump-dominated environment, and that’s coming across to voters.
“He’s really tanked,” said Dennis Gardiner, 53, an auditor from Des Moines who is uncommitted. “He’s a politician, and the rest of us are very tired of seeing nothing get done.”
Added Benjamin Rittgers, 39, of Ames, “Trump’s a stronger candidate. I like Walker as a governor.”
Trump fans pointed to the billionaire's blunt style, hardline approach to immigration, willingness to slam Washington and also to the fact that he's not a traditional politician — something Trump himself highlighted at length in Boone.
"I hear these politicians, I just can’t stand them anymore," Trump said. "Someone says, ‘you’re a politician,’ I say, ‘please, for three months I’ve been a politician.' You believe it? ... Politicians are all talk and no action."
Trump, on the other hand, painted himself as action-oriented -- as a train whizzed by, he said he was so geared toward action that when he was president, "that train's going to be moving a hell of a lot faster."
The billionaire also took swipes at several other GOP candidates: Ben Carson doesn't have the "energy;" Carly Fiorina is trailing him in the polls. As for Rick Perry, a frequent Trump critic who dropped out of the race on Friday, "is a nice man" but "he's gone, good luck, oh, he was very nasty to me."
"But when you win, everybody's wonderful," jabbed Trump, who said people were surprised when he tweeted positively about Perry on Friday. "But I think he's actually a nice guy."
Trump did not, however, go after Walker.
"Well I think Gov. Walker's a nice man," Trump said, when asked why he thought Walker had fallen in Iowa. "I know it's a big tumble, but he's certainly a nice man, I respect him, I like him."
Asked later the same question about what caused his slide, Walker maintained that by hitting all 99 counties and getting his message out, "We're going to win in Iowa."
But that will be difficult: rarely has a candidate led the polls in the summer, nosedived and then staged a comeback in time for the caucuses.
"Candidates like Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, others who have had a seasonal high, especially in the summer season, then find it a very difficult journey to get back to the top," said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa conservative, in an interview Friday. "People look at them initially, they went with them, then they found a better option and they leave with that better option. [If they leave] Trump, will they go back to Walker, or will they go to, say, a Ted Cruz? Historically it's fair to say they're going to look for somebody else."
Vander Plaats advised that Walker should keep highlighting an "outside-the-Beltway" message, something the governor, who made his name tackling unions, is trying to do with increasingly dramatic rhetoric.
Outlining his comeback path before he walked into the game Saturday, Walker offered a forceful though not entirely clear vision for how he plans to return to the top. "Talk to voters...and they'll tell you there's a number of us in their top two, three choices. As we continue getting our message out about wreaking havoc, we're the ones that can wreak havoc, do it against Washington."
Trump made a similar point Saturday, though far more directly.
"We need people with an aggressive tone, and we need people with tremendous energy," he said at his first rally. "And I'm your candidate, OK?"
The crowd roared.
yep when you are winning every age group in the state of Iowa you probably are going to do pretty well in the caucus
“One voter mistook him for Marco Rubio.”
That doesn’t say very much for Walker or Rubio.
That is a very interesting article, Vet. It’s really quite a stark comparison between what seems just a man who is a face in the crowd and a skyrocketing superstar.
Trump is a very unusual phenomenon. I have never seen anything like this in national politics in my lifetime. I was not expecting this to happen at all.
Trump gave Walker the "nice" tag.
I like Trump, but his candidacy reminds me a lot of the campaign Schwarzenegger ran in California. A lot of talk about turning the things around and tossing out the girly-men. They schooled him instead and eventually coopted him. Rush warned folks but the Golden State got the man they wanted.
Trump says all the right things, seems to have all the right enemies, and acts as if he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. A compelling combination in a candidate! But...
I want a proven foe of the Dems for President. Walker and Cruz were it for me. Walker seems to be quietly talking himself out of the job. Cruz and perhaps Kasich are about all we have left.
Overall, I think Trump proves the weakness of the GOP. We wouldn’t need a guy like him if there weren’t already two or three confident, plain-speaking, and proven candidates out there.
In fairness to Schwarzenegger, he had an overwhelmingly Democrat legislature to work with, or try to work with.
Yes, the dreaded ‘nice’ tag. It’s like the kiss of death. Lol
Definitely an endorsement of Walker
I get your point about the Schwartzenegger/Trump comparison, but I think the similarities are mostly superficial. For one thing, Schwartzenegger was an actor/body builder. He had no significant business experience or managerial experience - at least not in comparison to Trump. For another thing, he was as beholden to the donor class as all the other politicians are. When that’s your reality, your principles can be easily compromised because you live and breath by making your donors happy, instead of delivering what you promised, to the voters. That’s a big difference between him and Trump.
Kasich is just plain awful. A definite plan B (or so) for the manipulators. He’s all Chamber-of-Commerce, reward the big donors, while towns and cities are starved for cash.
Kasich is a warm bucket of spit. He ain’t no conservative and likes sucking the federal teet to the point where Ohio will live to rue the day he accepted Ocare money and mandates
He tried but the union machine in California (led by the teachers and SEIU) absolutely Willie Browned him
It’s interesting to see the coordination of Politico and Hillary in trying to demean Walker.
And interesting as well, it is done to build up Trump at Walker’s expense.
Trump likes unions. Walker fought and won against unions who were bankrupting his state and bleeding the tax payers dry.
Arnold was a parasitic opportunist and never a conservative.
He had nothing to do with making the recall happen.
He has no excuses nor should there be any for him.
I never said he was a conservative. I voted for McClintock so I did as much as any conservative could.
You must admit though that the unions and lefties beat the heck out of him and a series of propositions that would have changed much of what happened in California had they passed
I voted for McClintock too.
Daryl Issa made it happen. He should have been the candidate.
Walker loses to Trump in the Battle of the Tailgates at Iowa State football game. Faulty speakers are partly to blame.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Union,mob,ethnic group? Trump learned to deal with them all through his father. He mentioned last week how as he wee playing on the floor with blocks his dad was on the phone to plumbers and electricians negotiating contracts. Finished the part about Fred in the book THE TRUMPS last night. The plumbers and electricians were controlled by the toughest mobs in NYC.
no Schwarzenegger was just bad news for this state...All you need to know about him was that he pardoned a man guilty of cold blooded murder just because the mans parents were his close friends. the guy is all about cronyism and some people being more special then others because who they are related to. Schwarzenegger was a fake republican and only claimed the title because it helped with his persona that he used to get people into his movies
Arnold was married to a Kennedy! That alone spells trouble ahead!
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