First loss is always the toughest Snotty.
I was going to start off by sympathizing with poor Scotty Walker on his bitter disappointment, but I think I'll spend my consolation on a much more worthy recipient, the people of Wisconsin. Based on his whiny, sour grapes presser announcing that he was packing it in, I can only think that if this is how the little runt acts when he doesn't get his way, I'm sure most of the residents of Wisconsin were hoping for him to stay out on the trail for at least a little while longer.
Unfortunately, when you're sitting at >1% in national polls, it's kind of hard to make it sound like you're taking one for the team by stepping aside. I mean, it's not like the remaining candidates are going to be holding their collective breaths waiting to see which way his remaining 12 or so supporters break. Also, in my humble opinion, I'm not so sure his surviving staff are a critical issue. One of Walkers problems from the start in this campaign is he got lost in his lofty early status, hiring allegedly high priced talent for both his campaign and his early states ground game. One would think these would be prime fruit for remaining candidates to pluck up. But in my simple view, as long as Trump continues to dominate, and the big $$$ sits on the sideline, I'm not at all sure that campaigns that could use the help will want to put out that kind of cash if they don't have assurances that incoming donations will cover it.
But the fact of the matter is that the line about other lower rung candidates dropping out with him to allow a forward looking, positive candidate to rise to the top to challenge trump is pure bunk. Let's just use the latest Quinnipiac poll as an example. With Walker out, if over the next 48 hours the next lowest 8 candidates all threw up their hands and said "Nada Mas!", that would free up a grand total of 8% of voters. Even if they ALL broke for Carson, that would only bring him up to a statistical tie with Trump. And considering that some of the dropouts would be Pataki, Paul, Kasich and Christie, people who are not very likely to instinctively turn to Carson, and worth 6%, Trump still leads.
The result is even worse for the presumed front runner that Walker was referring to. Jeb! is currently polling at a rather anemic 10% in the same poll. Even if all 8% broke for Jeb!, that still leaves him 7% behind. And since some of those supporters will be from sources like Santorum, Huckabee and Jindal, he ain't gonna get all 8% either.
The basic fallacy in Walkers alleged logic is simple. The rest of the top tier is Carson, Fiorina, Rubio and Cruz. With the possible exception of Rubio, if you can find a positive, forward thinking candidate in that bunch, you're a much better Kossack than I am! As far as I can see, nothing in the dynamic of this race is going to change very much until Firoina and Carson start to stumble and fall by the wayside. Fiorina is the weakest link there, she obviously learned nothing from her shellacking by Barbara Boxer for the Senate. Maybe Women see her as strong and confident and assertive, but to me she comes off as cold, and arrogant and imperious. A good handler or consultant would point his finger to Hillary Clinton and her continuing issues due to her digging her heels in on her e-mail server, but Carly continues to double and even triple down about the issue with HP and the Iran printer sales. This is not going to go away anytime soon, and the longer she obfuscates on this, the more her lack of experience in damage control opens her up to the kind of statement that can be fact checked and conclusively refuted. Carson is a tougher nut, other than the fetal tissue issue from his research paper he doesn't carry the negative corporate baggage that Fiorina does. And as has been stated before, he doesn't make gaffes, he speaks his mind as he believes it to be and takes his medicine.
The best that Scotty and Jeb! can hope for is that something will happen to convince Rubio that he should drop out of the race and Jeb! gets a big boost from that. But considering the fact that Rubio sees himself of the one best positioned to pick up the loose change if Bush implodes, I don't see him going anywhere unless he becomes embroiled in some unknown major scandal.
Thanks as always for reading!