It's been a rough summer for many of the 2016ers, but Walker has had arguably the roughest of all https://t.co/nMjZeM3vIe
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) September 3, 2015
Just a few months ago, Conventional Wisdom held that Scott Walker was the only serious challenger to “Establishment favorite” Jeb Bush — the Koch-funded Apple to Jeb’s Microsoft monopoly. The NYTimes, back in July:
… For all the attention he has drawn because of his confrontations with organized labor, Mr. Walker is at least as animated by political strategy and tactics as he is by policy and ideological crusades. Except for a brief postcollege stint fund-raising for the Red Cross, he has spent his entire adult life in politics, first running for state representative at 22. He has held elected office continuously since 1993; the presidential contest will be his 14th campaign. And he comes to the race steeped in the knowledge required of a good political operative: what it costs to compete in swing states; the science of purchasing television advertising time; the art of getting good press…
Just as it is considered unwise for a lawyer to represent himself in court, though, Mr. Walker’s self-reliance on political strategy could prove problematic… To think like an operative, after all, is to find a way to appeal to the political marketplace at a given moment, to devise a way to win. But a fixation on salesmanship can also lead to shifting on issues…
Sure enough, Conventional Wisdom on Walker has shifted — dramatically.
Politico “insiders” branded him the summer’s Biggest Loser:
… [N]early half of GOP insiders said Walker, the Wisconsin governor, had the worst summer on their side of the aisle. In Iowa, where he was until recently considered the front-runner but now lags in polls, insiders were particularly down on him: 56 percent said he had lost the summer.
“He can’t seem to find his way on any given issue with a handheld GPS,” an Iowa Republican said of Walker. “He’s been on all three sides of every two-sided issue. For the last two months hasn’t made a single policy pronouncement that he or his staff hasn’t had to clarify or clear up within two hours. When you’re reduced to saying ‘yeah’ doesn’t mean ‘yes,’ you’re in trouble. ‘Unintimidated’ has given way to ‘uninformed’ and ‘unprepared.'”
“Not since, well, Tim Pawlenty has a candidate so hyped or seemingly invincible had their bubble burst in this way,” agreed another Iowa Republican, who like all participants was granted anonymity in order to speak freely. “He owes the Iowa GOP a big favor for canceling the Straw Poll to keep him from repeating Tim Pawlenty’s untimely demise.”…
Walker sounded like the perfect GOP primary candidate — on paper. But campaigns aren't run on paper. https://t.co/OEHEP4SWEp
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 30, 2015
There was plenty of ammunition available for any enterprising reporter looking for a new spin. Peter Suderman, in Politico Magazine, on Walker’s history of “crony capitalism”:
… Over and over during his presidential campaign, Walker has declared that, as president, he’d stand up to “special interests.” But by signing legislation a few weeks ago committing $250 million in public funds—which, once interest is included, balloons to more than $400 million—to the construction of a new stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks, Walker has made it clear, once again, that he’s willing to use taxpayer money in ways that help his political allies, like Bucks co-owner and longtime Walker donor Jon Hammes.
This is classic crony capitalism—a hefty dose of corporate welfare doled out to the benefit of a deep-pocketed political ally—and Walker has a long history of it in his home state. Indeed, one of Walker’s first acts as governor was to overhaul Wisconsin’s Department of Commerce, transforming it into the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), a poorly run crony capitalist boondoggle that has benefited his political allies at taxpayer expense…
Bloomberg Politics reported, despite Walker’s oft-professed worship of Ronald Reagan, that when “(f)aced with sagging poll numbers nationally and in key early states”, he’d promptly broken Reagan’s “11th commandment” and attacked his fellow Republicans. Business Insider gibed that he can’t even manage his own finances, much less a government’s…
What happened to Scott Walker? – The Washington Post http://t.co/FTR7hKvCPx
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) August 30, 2015
From the Washington Post article:
… Walker’s backers see a campaign discombobulated by Trump’s booming popularity and by his provocative language on immigration, China and other issues. They see in Walker a candidate who — in contrast to the discipline he showed in state races — continues to commit unforced errors, either out of lack of preparation or in an attempt to grab for part of the flamboyant businessman’s following.
These supporters say what is needed now is a return to basics, a more disciplined focus on the issues Walker long has championed in Wisconsin. They say there also needs to be a clear acknowledgment inside the campaign that the governor has yet to put to rest questions about his readiness to handle the problems and unexpected challenges that confront every president…
Walker said last week in North Carolina that he is “the same Scott Walker” he has always been and that any perceived shifts are exaggerations driven by the media. Although Walker once boasted about being a front-runner, he now says early polls are not a clear predictor of who will win the nomination months from now…
As part of this reboot, Walker has adopted a more aggressive posture on the campaign trail, shouting back at protesters at the Iowa State Fair and sharpening his criticism of China, the media and members of his own party — even the Republicans back in Wisconsin who were instrumental to his rapid ascension…
People actually saw him on TV –> https://t.co/OEHEP4SWEp
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 30, 2015
@PhilipRucker @daveweigel @danbalz @wpjenna Short answer to what happened to Scott Walker: he opened his mouth & stupid ideas spewed out.
— Cin Kramer (@cindkra) August 31, 2015
Walker on aiding hoops arena while opposing Ex-Im Bank: "Constitution doesn't say state/local govt can't do things." http://t.co/azhojXBayD
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 1, 2015
MANCHESTER, N.H.—In the weeks since Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called himself “aggressively normal” during the first 2016 Republican presidential debate, his poll ratings have gone in the wrong direction. Now he’s emphasizing the “aggressive” part.
He says Hillary Clinton’s handling of email as secretary of state should “disqualify her from being president of the United States.” …
He calls Marco Rubio’s assertion that repealing Obamacare is impossible under President Barack Obama “procedural talk”—and aims more fire at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The biggest people I blame are the leaders,” Walker said in an interview here in New Hampshire, where he currently languishes in fifth place in the polls. “Republican leaders who told us during the campaign, ‘You want to repeal Obamacare? We’ve got to have a Republican Senate.’
“The American people—me included—are frustrated, say ‘Well, where’s the action?'” To make things happen as president, Walker added, he’d like a Republican-controlled Senate to scrap historic filibuster rules so that an Obamacare repeal and other legislative priorities could pass with a simple majority vote. That wouldn’t require any Democratic cooperation at all…
Scott Walker thinks he can say "The Constitution" to duck any hard policy question. It's his "phone a friend." https://t.co/zAysnif7AM
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) September 1, 2015
Of course, Walker will always have his defenders….
Exclusive — @ScottWalker tells me he will beat @HillaryClinton or @JoeBiden in general election: http://t.co/RIjGkGSg7u
— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) August 31, 2015
Awesome exclusive https://t.co/7YGvk5zRuq
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) August 31, 2015
But not-insane conservative Daniel Larison, at the American Conservative, is magisterial — “Nothing “Happened” to Walker, He’s Just a Weak Candidate“…
… Walker’s decline isn’t really all that puzzling. He was treated as a “top tier” candidate months before he announced his campaign, and during that time expectations continued to be raised despite Walker’s obvious lack of preparation on national and international issues. Once he started campaigning in earnest, the actual candidate did not compare well with the imagined version of Walker that so many of his fans had created from what little they knew about him from his tenure in Madison. He failed to live up to a version of himself that never existed, and the reality of Walker turned out not to be very interesting.
In other words, nothing “happened” to Walker. His weaknesses as a national candidate were there for all to see, but most Republicans preferred not to see them until Walker made them impossible to ignore. Many of his fans assumed that Walker’s poor grasp of foreign policy issues would be remedied over time, but instead he has just adopted the most hard-line positions he could find with no sign that he has thought seriously about any of them. It is often said that he has been hurt most by Trump’s presence in the race, but that is mostly because he has responded to Trump’s challenge in the most ham-fisted and clumsy way possible.
At what point does Kochworld cut bait on Walker and get behind Rubio?
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 3, 2015
redshirt
There will always be a few fan boys. Riding eternal, shiny and chrome.
redshirt
Like, mediocre, Morsov.
Southern Beale
“…insiders were particularly down on him: 56 percent said he had lost the summer….”
56% of insiders? They polled insiders? Count me confused.
Sorry this sounds like so much Villager bullshit. I hate Scott Walker but when Donald Trump flames out don’t be surprised if he isn’t the one making a convention speech.
It’s too fucking early to be worrying about this shit.
srv
Koch’s Cucks crash and burn.
And yet, liberals think billionaires control the world. Well, one will, but not until January 2017.
Ken
@Southern Beale:
56% = 0.5555… rounded = 5 of 9, same as Bush v. Gore. Coincidence? I think not.
sloan
Although it’s still quite early, I’ve got to say I’m pleasantly surprised by how weak this so-called “embarrassment of riches” Republican field is turning out to be.
Thank-you, Donald Trump.
RaflW
Something I think many in WI could have told the Villagers a while ago, had they bothered to ask. Or had they dared to look past that week’s narrative that had to be flogged.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Southern Beale: Yup. This.
Meanwhile, in Syria… Reuters:
History isn’t over yet.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
gratuitous
It’s almost as if without a fawning media and swarming capitol police to shield him, Scott Walker isn’t quite all he was cracked up to be.
Bobby Thomson
When you’ve lost Mr. McMegan . . . .
benw
But that’s true for all of them, Trump included. Walker’s problem is that they spilled out boringly. I agree with @Southern Beale, there’s still nothing “wrong” (in the insider politics bullshit sense) with Walker or Jeb! that a Trump flameout and a few months media amnesia/whitewashing won’t fix.
srv
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: It’s a pretty sad day when the only person acting in America’s best interests in Syria is Putin.
What ever happened to all those liberal democractic jihadists Obama was traning? Maybe Obama can do another deal with Erdogan to courtesy bomb the Kurds?
Frankensteinbeck
As always, journalists, you desperately want to pretend dog whistles don’t exist. ‘Special interests’ means ‘white people who help blacks.’ When conservatives name a special interest, it’s always one – like public school teachers – that help create a little more equality.
In yet another edition of ‘things the press doesn’t want to admit’, somehow they’re not using this description on Jeb.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@srv: Yeah, it would be a sad day if that were the case. Fortunately, it isn’t.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the Washington Post has been periodically tweeting polls this point in years X
in ’07 McCain IIRC had to get a loan from his wife to pay his staff and according to Hedda Halpern and whosits his partner in gossip-gathering, was ready to drop out.
Even with the reminder that polls are useless this early, I was relieved to see Kasich stuck at the back of the pack the other day, and even more to see him start pimping social security privatization the other day. He’s not a perfect candidate, in style or substance, by any means, but I do think he could formidable in a general election.
catbirdman
@benw: Exactly.
MikeBoyScout
Deep Thought
The historically poorly educated people of Louisiana only Fkd up and elected Jindal twice.
Hello, Wisconsin!
srv
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Perhaps Kerry can curse in french at the Russians, or Obama can draw another red line.
Winning.
sloan
@srv:
re: “Winning.”
Sweet. Haven’t seen Charlie Sheen quoted in a while.
rikyrah
Walker is a college dropout who has spent his entire adult life on the government teet.
I will say this again. He never worried me. Willard ran a complete Southern strategy campaign, and it worked. He received 60% of the White vote. And it did not matter. There is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING about Scott Walker that remotely makes him appealing to non-Whites in this country.
jl
@benw:
” Walker’s problem is that they spilled out boringly. ”
I think also that Walker has taken really extreme positions on several important issues that will be unpopular in the general election (abortion, foreign policy, like, start bombing Iran first day in office, federal government’s ability to conduct any economic policy at all) and then when that didn’t work even in GOP primary, he tried to hide or shift from them to seem more moderate.
There are more credible ‘moderate’ (moderate for GOP) candidates, like Kasich, who has gotten slightly more popular as Walker has fallen.
Saying really scarily dumb, insulting stuff like bashing unions in Wisconsin will prepare him to fight terrorism won’t help.
In the interview, when asked about appeal to minority voters outside the Reagan white people coalition, Walker basically said. so what? I don’t need to. (edit: in the videos he actually said he could sew up the states electoral votes needed without worrying about the problem much, totally blew off the issue)
If Trump goes down, Walker may survive as the least unappealing candidate. I can’t see more than that.
groucho48
I used to try and rank Republicans running by how well they could sugar coat their crazy, mean-spirited policies. I was always wrong. It’s much simpler than that, The Republican who is clearest about having hateful, destructive, policies that benefited the rich at the cost to the base wins primaries, and, in off year elections, wins it all.
Trump is winning because he SOUNDS mean-spirited, vindictive and authoritarian. The base hasn’t paid too much attention to the content, yet. They are in love with the delivery. As time goes by, my guess is that that will change and they will realize he really isn’t one of them.
redshirt
srv has gone full troll and it’s wonderful.
sloan
@groucho48: This I’d what Josh Marshall calls the bitch slap theory of politics. Trump is bullying the entire field and they aren’t tough enough to look him in the eye, let alone stand up fid themselves.
Cowards, one and all.
sloan
My comments tonight will be frequent and contain many typos.
redshirt
@efgoldman: mclaren is not a troll.
And Right To Rise is certainly not paid by anyone for his lame efforts.
Villago Delenda Est
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Assad is an asshole, but he’s preferable to the deity-bothered barbarians of ISIL, who are engaged in destroying irreplaceable antiquities in the name of their pigshit deity, not to mention beheading those who dare to not believe precisely as they do.
Assad’s in trouble because he’s incompetent at running a country, not because he’s incompetent at running a military. Syria’s problems have to do with the thing that Republicans claim is a hoax, climate change.
jl
@sloan: Problem is that Trump is saying the anti-immigrant and bigoted xenophobic stuff very clearly and loudly and crudely that the other GOPers are afraid to say because they (more reasonably) fear they will alienate too many voters (including many independent and moderate whites) He also goes way too far left on social insurance. Then Trump bitch slaps them for not saying it louder than him and therefore being losers and crooks bought by the billionaires.
How are they supposed to respond? As long as the extreme right GOP primary base is the audience they all have to appeal to, there is no response. The ‘trust me, I am very serious dry drunk daddy GOPer and will work things out in the quiet back rooms’ doesn’t work because people are too pissed off at the establishment GOP, probably because they have played the same con for too long and haven’t found a replacement.
Trump delivered the right slap at the right time for the right audience.
kindness
The Koch’s will fund 2 of the top 3. Don’t cry for them yet.
Steeplejack (phone)
@sloan:
Bad link. You fix.
sloan
@jl: Yeah there’s no good response. Bush pulled that shit for 8 years like a boss. But his brother…
Jeb bush is such a fucking wimp. Trump mocked his wife and he fucking took it like a child being bullied in high school. Just horrible.
Even if I agreed with jeb I couldn’t vote for him after that.
Trump went PRISON RULES on his ass and knocked out the biggest guy in the yard with one punch.
srv
@Villago Delenda Est: Now I’ve heard it all. Obama Lost Syria Because Climate Change.
Derklimawandel!
That might work, but Gore is fatter than Brando now, so who is going to trot that meme out?
sloan
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m on a phone too. No idea wtf.
And I’m drunk as shit do that doesn’t help.
Anoniminous
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes indeed. But try to get any of our glorious Infotainment outlets to cover it.
Steeplejack (phone)
@sloan:
Well, all right, then. Carry on.
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
In the man-sized safe.
sloan
@efgoldman: jeb is a frightened turtle too chickenshit too peek out of his shell.
RaflW
@redshirt: srv has gone full troll and it’s
wonderfulstill just trolling.FTFY
benw
@rikyrah:
That’s good analysis, thanks. If racial voting demographics follow the current trend, then any R candidate is really screwed (even Ben C). But in this election Walker won’t be running against one of the smartest, most charismatic people I’ve ever seen. Will the D base turn out for Hillary or Bernie? I fucking hope so, of course. Can you imagine President Walker? Ugh.
sloan
@Steeplejack (phone): sorry! My 2 year old phone is obsolete and I can’t edit my comments or anything.
But if you’re not familiar with the article I tried to link to it is worth googling. It’s from 2004 and has stuck in my brain ever since I read it. The whole “bitch slap theory “, despite the awful name, really does a great job of pointing out how the GOP has managed to walk all over the Democrats for most of my life.
Although I must say Obama calls them out on that shit and rubs it in their face from time to time. Which is always fun.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sloan: Trump is a weird person, his speech patterns are weird, and interesting, and what’s weirdest is that the “low energy kind of guy” schtick– which is accurate, but where the hell did it come from?– really hit home. James Wolcott has a piece up about this strange season and he says that Trump has an alpha bully’s instinct for people’s weak spots. Certainly seems true in this case. Trump knew to go right for the Bush family scar about being a “wimp”, which I don’t think would have worked with Dumbya, though it was obviously part of his psyche
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Villago Delenda Est:
Assad needs to go. He used chemical weapons on people, remember? I’m not sure he’s in any way preferable to Baghdadi and the rest – just a little different in his ways of terrorizing people.
Yes, the drought was a big factor. Assad being a tyrant is a bigger one, though.
What should be done? Dunno. It’s hard to see Putin helping by giving Assad more weapons, and possibly Russian troops, though.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Timurid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Never doubt that Bashar al-Assad is the most evil person in the room. His regime is still the worst thing happening in Syria.
ISIS is no doubt horrible, a bunch of vicious Fascists masquerading as holy warriors. But their awfulness is exaggerated by their potential threat to the West (so at least in pure realpolitik terms they might be the worst) and their appetite for grotesque theater.
Assad doesn’t care about scoring style points, winning over Internet jihadis or playing Hannibal Lecter mind games with the Western media. He just cares about killing. Killing anyone or anything that threatens him as efficiently as possible. An ISIS victory in Syria would be a catastrophe. But most people would survive it, if not happily. The country would be a brutal dystopia and a menace to its neighbors. But an Assad victory would be an almost unimaginable horror. For Rwanda levels of horror. His first order of business after winning would be to kill everybody who ever threatened his government and the Alawite elite, anybody whoever even thought of doing so and anyone who might ever possibly do so in the future. And he won’t care what the world thinks, because after coming so close to the edge he’s going to do everything required so that it can never happen again or in the lifetimes of his children and grandchildren.
Syria after an Assad victory will be North Korea 2.0, with Russia playing the role of China… looking on in horror but too frightened to let go of the leash…
mai naem mobile
Walker and Kasich were the ones I was most worried about. I’m not saying I’m no longer worried about them but only because Trump is beginning to worry me. Trump might be dumb as a stump about policy but I think hes smart about appealing to an audience and that could beat HRC with underinformed voters.
sloan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know right? Why the hell am I paying attention to Donald Fucking Trump in the year 2015 when I’ve managed to ignore him all my life up until this point?
Because he’s having fun pretending to be a Republican and I’m having fun watching him do to the GOP what I’ve never seen ANY Democrat be able to do. Which is call their bluff. Hit them hard and dare them to come back for more. And they’re too scared to hit back.
It’s unreal watching all the big time Republican superstars paralyzed with fear by some douchebag TV star, but there it is.
The entire party is being emasculated, not just Bush or walker or whoever.
rikyrah
Trump does not worry me. I just want to mark week after week with him in the race. The longer he stays in, the better. Every week in is a week closer to the Iowa caucuses….never forget that.
sloan
@Steeplejack (phone): I’ll just quote the whole thing:
Josh Marshall, 2004:
But that’s only part of what’s going on.
Consider for a moment what the big game is here. This is a battle between two candidates to demonstrate toughness on national security. Toughness is a unitary quality, really — a personal, characterological quality rather than one rooted in policy or divisible in any real way. So both sides are trying to prove to undecided voters either that they’re tougher than the other guy or at least tough enough for the job.
In a post-9/11 environment, obviously, this question of strength, toughness or resolve is particularly salient. That, of course, is why so much of this debate is about war and military service in the first place.
One way — perhaps the best way — to demonstrate someone’s lack of toughness or strength is to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves — thus the rough slang I used above. And that I think is a big part of what is happening here. Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.
Demonstrating Kerry’s unwillingness to defend himself (if Bush can do that) is a far more tangible sign of what he’s made of than wartime experiences of thirty years ago.
Hitting someone and not having them hit back hurts the morale of that person’s supporters, buoys the confidence of your own backers (particularly if many tend toward an authoritarian mindset) and tends to make the person who’s receiving the hits into an object of contempt (even if also possibly also one of sympathy) in the eyes of the uncommitted.
This is certainly what Bush’s father did to Michael Dukakis and, sadly, it is what Bush himself did, to a great degree, to Al Gore.
In other ways, Bush’s bully-boy campaign tactics play to his strengths, albeit unstated and unlovely ones. Many of the polls of the president have shown that while people don’t necessarily agree with the specific policies he’s pursued abroad many also intuitively believe that there’s no one who will hit back harder. There’s some of that ‘he may be a son-of-a-bitch but he’s our son-of-a-bitch’ quality to the president’s support on national security issues.
This meta-message behind the president’s attacks on Kerry’s war record is more consequential than many believe. So hitting back hard was critical on many levels.
sloan
I’m surprised he hasn’t written a recent post about Trump regarding his “bitch slap theory”.
That dude basically perfected it.
shortstop
Walker’s not dying because he’s a policy dimwit who’s about 50 IQ points lower than he thinks he is. He’s going down because of his extreme lack of magnetism. Well, whatever works for getting rid of him, but I do agree with those who say the ash stake hasn’t been driven through his heart yet. The field is such pure crap that he could and probably will rise again…at least partway.
Is it me or does Jeb constantly look like he’s about to throw up these days? I’ve seen that look on the faces of people about to be indicted, students taking finals after having skipped the whole semester, and young girls leaving on first dates with highly worshipped boys.
sloan
@shortstop: jeb is doing this for his dad. If papa bush died 2 years ago there would be no Jeb! to speak of.
Brutal, but true.
He doesn’t want to be the loser who let the family business fail.
Aleta
@Ken: How so then?
sloan
@sloan: and I get it too. I didn’t take over my family biz and that was it at some goddam insurance brokerage nobody ever heard of.
President of the United states? I can’t even imagine.
Keith P.
I’d say Rick Perry is the biggest loser, more so than Walker or Jeb. Perry just finished a loooong term as head of a state that actually had a good economy, contra Walker, but he never, ever caught fire this cycle and is almost done.
mclaren
Walker was always an uneducated corrrupt thug. So his flameout comes as no shock.
That said, he was still the strongest hop candidate.
And what does *that* tell you about repubd in 2016?
Cripes, look at trump or Cruz. They make walker look like lincoln.
AxelFoley
@rikyrah:
This.
Sourmash
@Timurid: look up Hama1984
Cervantes
@shortstop:
Ouch.
BobS
@srv: “liberal democratic jihadists” – saves time to just write ISIS.
@Timurid: He’s worse than Hitler! Chemical weapons! North Korea! We need humanitarian intervention and we need it now!
PaulW
@redshirt:
You would quote Slit, that poseur.
Kay
I wasn’t worried about him because Wisconsin is a smallish state and teacher bashing is one trick and it’s stale-it doesn’t work for Chris Christie now either.
Kasich is a bigger threat but he’s the same as Jeb Bush and Bush isn’t going to get out of the way and allow him to pass. If Bush did get out of the way Kasich would become Bush to the GOP- they are exactly the same brand of Republican.
Kasich is a really hands-off manager. If I were Trump or Bush I would go after him on laziness and cluelessness – this state is being run by lobbyists and one powerful Republican in the legislature. It feels like no one is in charge. I think Kasich’s disinterest in actual work will become a real liability. Trump can have a field day with it. Kasich is a “type” – he’s a “big picture leader” who disdains engagement with his underlings. I think it covers incompetence and a lack of real understanding of what to do and it leaves a hole that ambitious hacks fill. The ambitious hacks are running this state-he isn’t.
debbie
@Kay:
Not that I’m obsessed with bad-mouthing Kasich or anything…
I once watched a broadcast of an ODD (or whatever it’s called now) meeting that Kasich attended. The camera was mounted on a wall and was static, focusing on the chairman and Kasich, who sat next to him. Kasich was totally ADD, shuffling papers, looking around, sighing. Finally, he said he’d heard that nothing gets done while he’s around, so he was going to leave. Got up and walked out.
Kasich is the kind of Republican that will make GWBush look like a deep intellectual.
Kay
Josh Mandel is an example of the kind of corrupt hack that has risen in the ranks due to Kasich’s complete disinterest in work. Mandel is the state treasurer. He was completely unqualified for that job so of course he went for a promotion and ran against Sherrod Brown because people always underestimate Sherrod Brown who is both really smart and a very good politician.
Mandel endorsed Rubio over Kasich because Mandel is exactly the kind of person who is running these little fiefdoms in state government in the absence of any real management or engagement by Kasich. There’s one in the dept of ed, there’s one in the AG’s office, there’s one in the Sec of State and the GOP in the legislature are completely out of control. Kasich is a weak manager and they all know it or they wouldn’t all be running wild.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Interesting take on Kasich (as always).
debbie
@Kay:
Mandel’s an abomination (remember how he insinuated his African American opponent Kevin Boyce was really a Muslim?), but I think his not being behind Kasich is the end of his political career.
Kay
@debbie:
That’s a type of manager. People have to be scared of him for it to work though, and they’re not scared of him. They’re all setting up their own little shops because they know no one is in charge.
Why are the sec of state and the state AUDITOR such big high profile people now? How does Josh Mandel become some powerful independent entity? That happens in the absence of Kasich.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Kasich is involved in a complicated scandal with really bad timing. Two things happening could make it go away. The head of the department of educationccould resign AND Republicans could pass charter school regulations. Nothing happened. They all just let it fester all summer and it hurts John Kasich. It’s as if he has no influence at all in one of his own departments and in the legislature. ONE person seems to be running the legislature and that person is both corrupt and a moron- really dumb.
debbie
@Kay:
Yes, Kasich’s weak and distracted, but I think the problem is that they don’t have Bennett (Ohio GOP Chair) to keep them in line anymore. Borges doesn’t carry the same kind of weight and that’s given anyone who thinks they could be the next governor license for shenanigans.
I for one cannot wait to hear how Husted’s going to defend his use of the word “monopoly” for Issue 3.
VidaLoca
@Kay:
That’s a little bit of an oversimplification of Walker though. He wasn’t just about teacher bashing, he was about teacher bashing in the context of destroying the last organized center of power (public employee unions) that working-class people had. That was the first item on the agenda of Republican governors in others of the upper-Midwest rust-belt states after the elections of 2010 — Michigan, Indiana, Ohio too. Out of that pack, Walker emerged as the most successful, most ambitious, most opportunistic — the one you’d most expect to be running (and he was — right from the get-go, as soon as the budget was passed in 2011).
VidaLoca
@Kay:
@debbie:
So would I be right in starting to think that the wheels are coming off for Kasich and the Republicans in Ohio?
debbie
@VidaLoca:
I think he’ll do well in NH, and the increased scrutiny that follows will undo him. His “gosh darn boyishness” won’t hide the fact he’s as much a paper-doll Republican as Walker.
VidaLoca
@VidaLoca: Just to add — teacher-bashing worked for Walker in the broader context of union-bashing. It succeeded partly because of the sclerotization of the unions themselves — few people outside of unions see them as being relevant, never mind beneficial, to their own interests. Too many white people define their interests in terms of their resentments, and that’s not going away any time soon. As other commenters have noted above, Walker’s misfortune was that he ran up against someone — Trump — who exploits white resentment much better than he does.
VidaLoca
@debbie:
What happens then back in Ohio? Does he have enough political capital left to hang on or is he soon to be overthrown? If so, by another Republican, or is the Democratic Party strong enough to do him in at last?
RAM
Walker is stupid as well as ignorant. The Koch brothers must have seen something there, but I’m not sure what it was, because he’s Snowmobile Snooky without the speaking ability. Or the right wing sex appeal. There are several “I stand with Scott Walker” signs along the road by our lake cabin in Northern Wisconsin, along with a few “I can’t stand Scott Walker” signs. But the pro Walker signs have declined sharply since he tried, as part of his state budget cuts, closing all the small roadside rest areas in that tourism-dependent area, which seems to have angered more people than his draconian education cuts.
rikyrah
@Kay:
thanks for the info, Kay. always appreciated
VidaLoca
@RAM:
Well, to give him due credit, he didn’t say a word about the cuts he was planning in the budget until after the election was over. That wasn’t stupid.
debbie
@VidaLoca:
There isn’t much of a Democratic party in Ohio at the moment.
VidaLoca
@debbie: Nor in Wisconsin. Interesting to hear you say that though, I thought the DP in Ohio was in better shape than the DP here.
What happened? Any thoughts? Anybody trying to do anything about it?
Doug R
@redshirt: What a lovely, lovely day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU4mDyj8DSI
Doug R
@rikyrah: Is that Trump’s ploy? That he gets non-whites so enraged they show up and vote? Sorry, is that BILL Clinton’s ploy?
Doug R
@Steeplejack (phone): http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/–97767
shell
Yup, a lot can change when a very local Favorite Son has to leave his protective bubble and show himself on the national stage.
debbie
@VidaLoca:
Kay’s far more knowledgeable about this than I, but between the lack of strong local candidates and gerrymandering, there’s not much hope at present. I like Strickland, but stepping backwards isn’t the key to moving forward.
They’re revisiting redistricting (so corrupt even the Republicans seem to want it fixed), so maybe there’s hope yet.
Zinsky
I think Scott Walker is just a very dumb, ignorant man. Look in his eyes – a complete lack of intellect or self-awareness. Many of the GOP candidates are just bad, flawed people (e.g. Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina), but they are intelligent. Walker isn’t, and it shows.
SRW1
@RAM:
Maybe that he takes orders from them really well? Wasn’t there a prank phone call pointing in that direction?
The Sheriff's A Ni-*bong*
@VidaLoca: Ghosting in for a bit, but the Ohio DP had a strong slate of candidates in 2006. Brown, Strickland, Cordray, et al. Then came Citizens United and somehow it all came undone. You’d be hard pressed to even notice there were statewide races last November. Kay can correct me if my educated guess isn’t educated enough, but that screams to me that the Democratic fundraisers went ‘nope’ when they saw how much the Republican candidates were pulling in.
And from what Kay says, now it turns out it was a twin-edged blade. The Ohio RP no longer has the reins on funding and its every Republican for themselves.
EriktheRed
Walker has never scared me much because I always believed his shtick wouldn’t play well on the national stage. It would appear that belief has been borne out.
Unfortunately, Walker is going to continue piss me off- and most others on here. My one hope is that national exposure of what a dickhead he is might wake up more people in Wisconsin to the need to come out and vote against him in 2018.
Frankensteinbeck
@sloan:
Donald Trump has a big, big advantage in slapping down Republican candidates. He can supply the base with what they truly want – unfiltered, mean-spirited racism. He can tell them flat-out that Mexicans are rapists and murderers and should be deported. No Democrat can do that, or should.
VidaLoca
@EriktheRed:
I hope the same but I don’t have much optimism. Walker won his last three elections because there was no compelling candidate running against him, no appealing platform presented to the voters, and not enough done to organize the opposition to get out the vote given the candidate and platform on offer. Unless this changes in 2018 the Republicans will continue to hold the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature. The Democratic Party is such a broken and discredited organization that hoping for it to turn itself around in two years is simply naive.
Ironically, Walker himself has burned through so much of his political capital with his current budget that he would stand a good chance of losing if he were to run in 2018. Our best chance might be that he does so
Citizen_X
As contrasted with Trump’s clear mastery of the issues, right?
Marc
@debbie: I don’t think that the local republicans have a very deep bench either; the statewide elected officials haven’t covered themselves much in glory. Kasich made his reputation in the 1990s, and Strickland has a very good shot at the Senate seat. If the Republicans lose the 2018 governors race they’ll be on the other side of the gerrymandering issue. There are still some solid potential figures around (I think that Rich Cordray has a good shot at statewide office, for instance.)
Heliopause
Larison has it exactly right. Walker hasn’t done anything wrong, he’s simply a lousy candidate. He reminds me of Dino Rossi here in my home state of Washington. He’s a smarmy little prick, quite apart from any policy positions, the kind you’d never vote for unless a simple binary compelled you to pick him as ideologically closest to yourself.