Scott Walker circa February 2015 — the good old days.
The latest
Iowa poll from the
Des Moines Register/Bloomberg showing Donald Trump at 23 percent, Ben Carson at 18 percent, and Scott Walker falling all the way back to 8 percent (tied with Ted Cruz for third) has sent the Walker campaign into a spin,
reports the
Washington Post:
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. [...]
Several supporters say Walker appears to have had too many meetings with too many experts, turning him into a more timid version of himself. They miss the Midwestern candidate who focused on economic issues like weakening public unions, making painful cuts to the budget and reducing taxes by more than $2 billion.
You mean the nostalgia-inducing Scott Walker who sucked the bone marrow out of Wisconsin's economy? If only he were still that guy and that guy alone, surely he would still be the GOP front-runner. But instead Walker's trying to out-Trump Trump.
In discussing immigration on Sunday, Walker said constructing a wall on the U.S. border with Canada — the longest in the world at 5,525 miles — is “a legitimate issue for us to look at.”
That is just sad. And potentially more sad than
Jeb!'s latest attempts to take down The Donald. Naturally, all of Walker's faithful feel certain that if he just gets back to the basics, he can turn this thing around. But he would have to be able to actually handle questions on the fly without having to call for a "clean up on aisle seven" several days later. So far, he's proven completely unable to do that.
