Posted on 08/16/2015 5:17:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It may be that Scott Walker’s “moment” came sometime in March or April. That was when the governor’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was going from strength to strength. He was racing ever upward in national polls, establishing a solid lead in the first caucus state of Iowa, and moving up on supposed front-runner Jeb Bush in the first primary state of New Hampshire.
It seemed that nothing could stop him.
Then Republicans started paying attention.
Walker was already losing momentum before the Donald Trump surge, and before the Fox News debate that appears to have again reshuffled a Republican race that is starting to smell like the 2012 contest in which partisans constantly switched their loyalties among flavor-of-the-month candidates (Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum).
The Fox debate was crucial for Walker, who needed to renew his candidacy. Instead, he renewed a sense that he was not ready for prime time.
The problem was not that the governor stumbled in a dramatic way — although his attempt to explain away his failure to deliver on past promises with “aim high” platitudes was painful. What tripped up Walker was that there was nothing dramatic — good or bad — about his performance.
He was drab and predictable on a stage where it was hard enough to steal attention from Trump. Other candidates made their mark with rhetorical flourishes (Florida Sen. Marco Rubio), by positioning even further to the right (Texas Sen. Ted Cruz), by showing a little humanity (Ohio Gov. John Kasich), or by adding what passed for humor to a generally humorless experience (former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee).
But Walker made no mark. He sounded like what he is: a political careerist looking to add another line to his resume. The Huffington Post’s analysis summed things up: “Walker, the Wisconsin governor, came off flat.”
After the debate was done, the right-wing pundits who spent the spring pumping up the governor’s candidacy were distracted by new shiny pennies.
The same went for the Republican base that had, briefly, been so enamored of Walker.
When the dust had settled, the polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight headlined its assessment of “clear losers” in the debate with a reference to Walker. “(The) polling is clear,” the data review explained. "Walker is the only candidate who lost ground in every single post-debate poll. In Iowa, where Walker had been leading, just 5 percent of voters said his performance was the most impressive of all the candidates. Walker’s debate night was bad enough that he has lost his edge in Iowa to Trump.”
Actually, it’s worse than that. A week after the debate, a new CNN poll had Walker falling to third in Iowa (behind Trump and Ben Carson). A new Boston Herald poll had him tied for seventh in New Hampshire — behind, among others, former "also-rans" such as Kasich and Carly Fiorina.
If this keeps up, Walker may have to start worrying about how he will finish in next spring’s Wisconsin primary.
I like everything about Cruz except his position on legal immigration. We need to HALT all immigration. For a number of years. All those who are here illegally need to self-deport or be deported. The citizenship of all anchor babies needs to be revoked, and they and all their relatives deported.
The country cannot survive if the millions of people imported by the Democrats to vote (illegally and “legally”) are not deported. They vote 70-60% Democrat—which is to say, 70-80% pro-abortion.
Cruz is a strong solid conservative on all issues EXCEPT immigration. Expanding H1-B visa five fold is not good when 93 million adult Americans are without jobs. He also is for increasing legal immigrants. Why?
I liked Walker early on (always wanted Cruz), but he started losing me a month or so ago and he seems to be heading for invisibility.
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