Actually, I think I'll stay put right here.
If there's anything Scott Walker learned after his big
Iowa speech in January that catapulted him to the national stage, it's this: don't take questions. That's precisely when his star began to fall—when he began talking off the cuff in February. First he turned
vaccinations into a states' rights issue, next he
dodged the question of evolution while speaking at a thinktank in the UK, then he
compared unions to ISIS, and finally he roared into March by
delivering the devastating news to the GOP base that a president couldn't singlehandedly overturn
Roe v. Wade.
So when Walker started trying to plan a post-announcement trip to New Hampshire, he ran into the huge headache of voters wanting to query him at—(cue Jaws theme)—a town hall meeting. (gulp) Eli Stokols reports:
But the Wisconsin governor’s camp, according to three people familiar with the conversations, wasn’t interested in taking questions. They simply wanted to deliver a speech and meet people afterwards.
The event fell through.
That interaction, as much as anything else, provides some insight into why the clear front-runner in Iowa is merely a middle-of-the-pack candidate in New Hampshire. When Walker arrives in the Granite State Thursday, three days after launching his presidential campaign, it will be a rare appearance — his first New Hampshire sighting since May. According to figures compiled by U.S. News and World Report, only one Republican has been to the state less than Walker — Rick Santorum.
Walker will reportedly be in and out of the state in 24 hours, which isn't fostering warm feelings for the governor among New Hampshire voters.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with people here about: ‘Where is Scott Walker?’” said Jamie Burnett, a GOP strategist from Concord who just signed on as a supporter with Bush’s campaign. “I personally was interested in him early on but he just hasn’t been here.”
Forget about taking on ISIS—it's pretty hard to see a path to the presidency for someone who's too afraid of voters to talk to them.