Walker’s out of the race.
And I couldn’t be more bummed.
Walker was the *only* candidate in the race that has actually walked the walk when it comes to pushing back on the public employee unions, whose pensions are going to bankrupt this nation long before any war will.
“But he built a stadium for the Bucks!”, some chant. Yeah, he’s not perfect. No candidate is.
“But he’s weak on foreign policy”. He could appoint his motorcycle Secretary of State and have a better foreign policy team than the current occupant.
“He’s a warmonger!” No, he isn’t. Appearing strong and resolute leads to peace; begging for peace brings war.
“But he’s got no charisma!”. Good God, people – voting for charisma is as likely to get you Barack Obama as it is Ronald Reagan. I’ll take an “uncharismatic” president who not only knows how to *talk* about drawing and holding lines, but *has done it, successfully, against brutal, ruthless opposition*, over some “charismatic” candidate for whom it’s all theory, however charismatically expressed.
Given a choice between Calvin Coolidge – an uncharismatic president who shrank government, getting it out of the way of epic prosperity – and a “charismatic” hamster like our current president, is it even a choice?
This is a lousy day for America.
OK, Fiorina and Rubio people. I’m listening
The more I listen to Fiorina, the more I’m starting to like her. My quandary: I like her, Ben Carson & Marco Rubio.
I like Carson – but he’s said just enough things to convince me I can’t quite support him for the big show.
Carly moved up fast. Rubio’s always been a contender.
When an Establishment Democrat or Republican wins, they can fill subordinate positions with loyal people vetted from party ranks and can depend on think-tank scholars to draft policy proposals.
When Ventura won, the Independence Party was too small to have viable candidates for jobs like Public Utilities Commission so Ventura picked Democrats hastily rebranded as Independents or Moderates. He ended up governing as a Democrat because aside from Dean Barkley, his administration was full of Democrats.
The Establishment Republican candidate is Jeb. Carly and Ben might earn the nomination and might even win, but they’ll have to turn to the Establishment for help filling the hundreds of appointed positions – ambassadors and consuls, agency heads and deputy heads, commission chairs, military chiefs – and they’ll do it knowing the Establishment will never be on their side and probably will work against them and the people who got them elected (think Boehner/McConnell versus the Tea Party).
Trump is the only guy who might have a fighting chance of finding people to fill positions and draft policy proposals without going to the Establishment. They can’t control him and can’t undercut him; therefore, he terrifies them in a way Carly and Ben do not.
Would Trump be a good President? No better than Jesse was a Governor, no worse than Obama. But neither Establishment party cares about “good” or “bad,” they care about “has power.” He’ll never make it past the primary. They can’t afford to let him.
I’m with you — really liked Walker. Trump is dead to me for a variety of reasons, but his mendacity in re Walker was particularly egregious. Not sure where to go next, but I’d agree that Rubio and Fiorina are the most plausible choices left.
Walker’s problem was he tried to tie everything to fighting unions in Wisconsin. He was a one trick pony and his pony got tired.
Rubio is another freshman senator with no executive experience who wants to be president. What could go wrong? Well now we should all know. I prefer to judge people first by what they’ve done in the past, and second by their plans for the future,
Carson is not ready for the head job. Or at least not running for it. Its sad that you have to be a slick polished politician to run for high office. Carson isn’t slick, Walker isn’t flashy. They are just competent.
Carson’s thing this past week….if he was a slick politician, he’d be ready for the gotcha questions.
Rubio is another freshman senator with no executive experience who wants to be president. What could go wrong?
One of my biggest worries is that Obama has forever poisoned the well for first-term Senators who might actually be capable and qualified.
Joe, what makes you think that Trump wouldn’t go to “independent” Democrats at least as much as establishment Republicans? The man’s positions are all over the table, and many of them are frankly more Democrat friendly than Republican.
Walker was my first choice. Now I’m going down my list.
I like Fiorina, but what happened at HP while she was CEO will be more problematic for her in the general election than Mitt’s time in private equity since she was directly responsible for a LOT of layoffs, and there’s no way she can claim they were responsible for a turnaround of the company (which is still a mess, mainly because of probably the worst board of directors of any public company I’m aware of).
Rubio has possibilities for me, as does Cruz. Carson doesn’t seem to be able to understand how to work the media and shape his message, and honestly, that’s a requirement these days since they’re now opening Democrats with bylines. Trump works the media by blowing it up and it works for him, but I doubt many others can pull that off.
The ONLY one I’m listening to is Cruz.
You make a good point Joe. I think it applies to Ben, but not so much for Carly IMO. Carly knows people in many positions of power in private industry, and therefor has a bench to draw from. Ben, being the ultimate outsider would definitely draw from the available pool of political hacks.
I was definitely a Walker guy, but unfortunately (and in direct contradiction to Emery’s uninformed opinion) he never got up on the pedestal he earned from smacking leftists and union thugs to the pavement, and withstanding everything they could throw at him. He earned bragging rights, but never used them.
I’m a bit verklempt with losing my guy in the first round, and not really sure who I’ll go with yet, but Carley and Rubio are certainly at the top of my list, with Carson holding a solid nod for VP.
I’ve been happy to have Trump pissing in the lefties punch bowl, but I fear he’s starting to believe he might have a legitimate shot, and starting to piss in my punch bowl. Unless he re-focuses on Clottin and the Democrat war on Real Americans, I think it’s time to cut the line.
Fiorina is in the Chamber of Commerce camp on illegals. Thumbs down.
Carson’s thing this past week….if he was a slick politician, he’d be ready for the gotcha questions.
His responses earned him voters, not hurt him.
Here’s the good news, folks: Trump is stirring the pot and people are paying attention – AND, none of the front runners are “moderates!” We’re only in Act One. Enjoy watching media get spanked!!!
Swift: Most of Walker’s problems stemmed from his own missteps and inconsistencies.
Big Stink – you really think Bush is a conservative? Wow.
**** AND, none of the front runners are “moderates! *****
You make a good point Joe. I think it applies to Ben, but not so much for Carly IMO. Carly knows people in many positions of power in private industry, and therefor has a bench to draw from.
The private industry Carly Fiorina would most likely know people in is the tech sector. The people in positions of power there tend to overwhelmingly be progressive Democrats. I’m not sure that’s the bench you’d want to draw from in a Republican administration.
DMA: Yes, Bush IS a moderate. I meant “front-runners” as in the first four or five in the polls right now.
ou really think Bush is a conservative?
Objectively? He is. When he was governor, he was very much a conservative – probably moreso than his brother, especially in terms of state budget.
A perfect Milton Friedman clone? Of course not. Nobody in the race is.
But it speaks to Stink’s point that if Bush (and Christy) are the most “moderate” on the panel, then the party has moved to the right.
And that’s a good thing.
Jeb! is conservative enough and will certainly out–moderate Clinton in the general.
Good governance is boring. There is a reason that successful (ie: elected) politicians are rarely that competent at governing. They haven’t actually run something, other than their campaign(s), successfully. Governors generally do better because they are forced to understand the complexities of situations and policy then compromise with the other party to govern (ie: build a few roads, improve sanitation systems, etc). Obama is one of the least competent people in the world (seriously, does anyone know less about how insurance works than our Barry?) but he has a winning smile, is a good father and oh, did you see him dance on “Ellen”?
Walker was able to tame a situation that was unique to and crippling ‘Sconnie – out of control public employee’s unions. He took necessary action to govern the situation in WI. Beyond the Dairyland, people aren’t clamoring to reign in the Federal employee unions – and I hate to agree with commenter ‘Emery” or whomever he copied his take from, but he rode that one-trick pony for too long.
Walker is a loser, that’s why he got out. Period.
His record as governor has put Wisconsin in a far worse position than it could and should be in, particularly economically. Right wing economics are an epic failure.
Walker is the wholly owned puppet of the Koch brothers; I doubt they are happy with him, and probably they got tired of throwing their money at a clearly losing candidate. Walker, like so many right wing candidates before and after him, are an international embarrassment, not viable on foreign policy – like Hermann Cain all over again. Walker could not win a primary, but he had no chance in hell of winning the general. In fact, no right wing candidate is polling as well as either of the two dem leading candidates at the moment.
I applaud Bernie for taking his campaign to conservative voters, at sites like Liberty University, where apparently his message went over surprisingly well. The religious right has a slow learning curve, but they’re getting tired of being the dupes of the corporate owned establishment right. I think that dear old self-proclaimed socialist is going to cut into the conservative vote, much like it is looking like the would be successor to Gov. Bashear is doing in the KY race against a teabagger who wants to get rid of Obamacare and KYnect. (Both surprisingly popular among conservatives as well – because they work.) The issue that will resonate this election cycle is properly wealth and income inequality; conservatives are on the wrong side of that, especially promoting more tax cuts for the rich and more benefit cuts for the rest of the population.
Trying to make hay out of same-sex marriage as a wedge issue won’t work; it’s becoming too broadly popular including among conservatives. You won’t win either – as Fiorina tried to do – with fake footage relating to abortions. People don’t like hearing that Fiorina can’t tell the difference between PP footage and NOT PP footage. That fact checking is biting her in the arse, hard, and not letting go.
It will be interesting to see what conservative presidential candidate the Kochs buy as Walker’s replacement.
So many right wing candidates— too bad they’re all shit, every one of them.
Trump? Bwahahahahaha — a hate-peddling clown whoappeals to people who think at the level of 3rd graders. Carson? Yeah, Biblical tax reform is never going to fly, never mind any of his other crappy positions. Fiorina? She’s about to Bachmann out of the race after peaking too early, entirely on factually false positions.
Jeb? Ppppffffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttt. No one is going to elect another Bush to the presidency in our lifetime. His crap about how safe his brother kept us is not playing well outside the brain-dead-by-extremist-ideology crowd. And your anti-immigrant bigots won’t want a Mexican first lady in their oh so ‘white’ White House.
Cheer up Mitch; it’s a gorgeous day. Walk off your sadness, or better yet go enjoy a ride on your bicycle. Weather doesn’t get any better than this.
Especially not with climate change problems.
JPA….I was surprised at how much support Carson received. People see Muslims as the we see those in the Mideast. Not so much the quite guy/gal who works in your office.
Now, if you really want to see people get worked up, ask the general population what they think about Obama bringing in 250,000 Syrians. While the VA is a mess, unemployment is higher than the stats say, homelessness, gov’t deficits due to big welfare, and now we have to care for a quarter million Syrians.
On most major issuies, not a dimes worth of difference between Bush and Hillary.
If it comes to that, and I’d put money on it that it will, I stay home.
DG,
“Period”
And that may be the closest you’ve come to logic or substantive fact-checking you’ve ever gotten.
It’s neither logical nor substantive…well, I repeat myself.
People don’t like hearing that Fiorina can’t tell the difference between PP footage and NOT PP footage. That fact checking is biting her in the arse, hard, and not letting go.
Er, it’s a distinction without a difference.
You keep using the term “fact-checking”. I don’t think that term means what you keep saying it means.
Oh, yeah:
“arse”?
Foppishness. Two minute penalty.
I applaud Bernie for taking his campaign to conservative voters, at sites like Liberty University, where apparently his message went over surprisingly well.
Meaning: the students at the conservative christian school were polite. Unlike students at left-addled schools faced with conservative opinion.
too bad they’re all shit, every one of them.
You know, DG, I remember a time when you used to wrap your factless and illogical statements in at least a faint patina of classiness.
What happened?
they’re all shit, every one of them.
And, btw, that’s the kind of talk one might expect about a field containing an African-American, two Latinos and a woman who rose through the corporate world on her merits, when you are defending a field of old white people, including a “Feminist Icon” whose only qualifications are having married strategically, tolerated and abetted a serial philanderer for 40 years, and a hitch as the worst Secretary of State since Madeline Albrecht.
“Walker is a loser, that’s why he got out. Period.”
Walker elected:
1993-2002 WI Assembly
2002-2010 Milw Cnty Exec
2010 WI Gov
2012 WI Gov recall
2014 Wi Gov
DG you really are a twit!!!!!
“too bad they’re all shit, every one of them.”
like many progressives DG believes that her argument becomes more trenchant and compelling when delivered in coarse vulgarities.
DG it just makes you coarse and vulgar!
Oh DG under Walker the high school graduation rates have risen to # 5 in the nation with only 4 states showing better graduation rates while Minnesota under Dayton has sunk to #30 with graduation rates for; Blacks=51%, Hispanics=53% and American Indians= 45% – only Nevada has overall lower minority graduation rates than Minnesota.
Walker is a loser, that’s why he got out. Period.
Ah, yes, there’s that thought-out, well-reasoned, logical and balanced thinking we’ve come to expect from DG.
No consideration about war chests, or internal polling numbers, or just the Herculean task of running for President itself. Nope. “Walker is a loser.” It’s like something you’d find in a fortune cookie for complete idiots.
I like to think of DG as some girl from the 80s, with aqua-netted hair, jabbering to her gaggle of like-minded bobbleheads, and the straight A, class president, quarterback happens to walk by, and DG rolls her eyes, snaps her gum, and in her most screechy valley girl sneer, says “He’s a loser! I’m having my PERIOD!”
You might detect DG is a little more deranged than usual. Well, she just escaped the extermination of her whole family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQODkie_pDE
Inhaled quite a bit of gas on her way up the wall, probably.
For your amusement:
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critical reasoning is prized here
SMH
critical reasoning is prized…
…in the same way Ahab prized the great white whale, or so it’d seem.
Walker lost me when he said he would de-unionize the federal workforce.
Unionization of the federal workforce isn’t the problem, The feds don’t operate like the states.
The problem is the federal bureaucracies are, in fact, acting like a fourth branch of government. There is little accountability. TR got rid of the patronage system in the early days of progressivism when it was believed that a government run by professionals could do for government what it had done for business and industry. No one really believes that anymore, even today’s progressives believe the problem of government is inseparable from the problem of values.
Call me a cynic, but money and the establishment rule politics. Come November 8th, 2016, I believe we will be voting on another Clinton or another Bush.
Until the primaries come, I’m just going to sit back, laugh a little, and watch the show.
The people who dislike walker for his anti-government-union stance should seriously consider what a strong, independent labor union movement would look like. Labor unions work by exclusion. If they are truly an independent labor union, they will choose whatever members they like — not the members corporations or the government would like them to choose. What most people on the left would like is unions that are controlled by government, which of course is what they have had in totalitarian regimes.
DG- “Trump, a hate peddling clown who appeals to those who think at the levels of 3rd graders..” A cynic might say that if you could refute Trumps policy positions you would have done so. But, as usual, just juvenile name-calling. But it’s interesting that you disparage the thinking of 3rd graders. But what do you think the education level is of many if not most of these illegals crossing the border? I know you’re not a hypocrite, so I’m glad you’ll join us in turning away those that have only 3rd grade thinking skills that are trying to crossing the border. “Especially with climate change problems.” And what would those problems be? Other than the problems the alarmists have in that almost none of their “predictions” have come true.
I am happy that Trump is bringing up immigration. It’s a sign of the corrupt politics of our time that no candidate, D or R, (other than Trump) is willing to enforce the immigration laws as passed by the peoples’ congress and signed by the chief executive.
Note to candidates: Victory is defined in three words: Build the fence!
“I am happy that Trump is bringing up immigration.”
That’s the spirit! Turn that lemon into lemonade.
It’s a sign of the corrupt politics of our time…
Blue, what laws? 0bumbler’s administration is above the law and constitution. Did you hear they just rewrote the immigration law again without Congress consent? This is about as imperial presidency as we ever had. The current occupant has to be impeached and prosecuted for lying under oath to obey and protect the Constitution.
“That’s the spirit! Turn that lemon into lemonade.”
I am a conservative, Emery. I am not a Republican. I am registered as an independent.
Prussian Blue, you must not live in Mn. No one here keeps a registry of people’s political affiliation.
PB: There are a few positive aspects with Trump in the mix.
DMA, he doesn’t. Hint: you REALLY want to visit him in the winter.
I live in Hawaii, DMA, a few miles from Kilauea Volcano.
Hawaii is a deep blue state. The governor, legislature, and the entire congressional delegation is Democrat. The politics of any isolated island tend to be monolithic or bitterly divided. If I was still a poli-sci student, I could get a paper out of that . . .