I’ll start with an awesome bit of writing from The Guardian’s Jeb Lund, who says Scott Walker “should just give up.” In addition to being a great rundown at all the ways Walker has flailed and become a laughingstock on the campaign trail, Lund’s article comes with the British bite that far too few of our suck-up American journalists choose to bring upon the politicians they interact with.
Walker, touring New Hampshire on said Harley, seems to love any photo op when he’s in his leather jacket, though it does nothing to obscure the fact that he looks like he wakes up every morning and frowns at 30 identical chambray button-downs before picking one to tuck into one of 30 identical flat-front chinos. Scott Walker looks like every dad who is trying too hard to look cool during his Saturday afternoon trip to Home Depot to buy an Allen wrench because he lost the one that came with his wife’s Ikea Hemnes dressing table.And lest you try to blow that article off as , “oh the Guardian is a left-wing overseas newspaper”, then take a look at what the very Republicans Walker is trying to win over in Iowa and New Hampshire have to say about him in a Politico Magazine article that calls Walker “The Biggest Loser of the Summer.” These are just some beautiful comments.
But trying and failing to look hardcore is sort of a thing with Walker. On the debate stage near a one-man burn unit like Donald Trump, Walker did everything short of vanish into the background. At CPAC, he burnished his credibility as someone who can stop Isis by saying, “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world. But he didn’t take on 100,000 protesters. During the protests, he slunk to and from the Wisconsin state capitol via underground tunnels and his legislature hasrepeatedly revised rules to restrict capitol protests. He even lied about having his car threatened.
On Tuesday, a benighted Walker told CNBC that he doesn’t think he’s a career politician: “A career politician, in my mind, is somebody who’s been in Congress for 25 years,” he said. Walker, who is 47, first ran for office at age 22, and finally did so successfully at age 25. That was 22 years ago. When you have negligible work experience outside your current field, which you’ve been in for nearly half your time on this earth, sorry, it’s your career. It’s like someone who just drank a case of 3.2% beer claiming he’s sober because he didn’t touch any hard liquor. Sure, pal, take the keys and fire up the road beast and try to peel out of here….
Scott Walker should’ve been the Republicans’ – or at least the Koch Brothers’ – Dark Money Knight, riding manfully to Washington on his union-busting, climate-change-denying Harley, driving the real career politicians from the city like Sobieski lifting the siege of Vienna. Instead, he’s looking more like a man destined to return to Madison with a wad of Delta Sky Miles to haunt the capitol tunnels, a wraith occasionally seizing hapless passersby at underground crossroads and demanding they tell him if they’ve seen Ronald Reagan, what causes male-pattern baldness and how big Canada is.
"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.'"…And yes, there’s plenty, plenty more, read the whole thing if you wish to be entertained.
The GOP insiders' criticism of Walker was rooted in the sense that his positions on a number of policy issues, from immigration to abortion, have shifted repeatedly, and that he has recently attempted to pander to Donald Trump voters.
"[That] plunge [in the polls] has come as a result of his inability to articulate where he stands on a single issue," an Iowa Republican said. "Authenticity matters in Iowa. Big time. In fact, it's the only thing that matters. Scott Walker advocated building a wall between the U.S. and Canada. How do you NOT lose the summer with a statement like that?"…
"He's lost his lead in the make or break Iowa caucuses. He has alienated donors with his pandering to the base of the party. He is woefully unprepared in interviews. He has cemented his reputation as a shameless flip-flopper, and worst of all he has raised questions about if he is actually smart enough to run for president," said a New Hampshire Republican.
But in addition to the excellent schadenfreude you may feel at Walker being made into a punchline, you may also have gotten disgusted as you read those articles, and with good reason. The shallowness, racist dog-whistles, flip-flopping, spinning, excuse-making, and lack of connection to reality has been apparent with Walker for years. So why did the Wisconsin media cover up for him, and refuse to call him out on it, allowing this doofus to embarrass the state again and again on the national stage? Was it really worth all of that campaign money and company-paid trips out-of-state to sell your integrity out and allow the state to be run into the ground?
It’s not just Walker that deserves to lose his chances at further employment in 2016. The same fate should fall to editors David Haynes and George Stanley at the Journal-Sentinel, and John Smalley at the Wisconsin State Journal (yes John, the WSJ has been a little better in the last year, but too little, too late). In addition, dishonorable mention goes to “watchdog journalist” Dan Bice for running with any WisGOP-planted rumor he could find, but not reporting what he knew about “nice guy” Walker and the corruption at WEDC (still waiting for you to write as many articles on WEDC as you did on Mary Burke’s “plagiarism”, Danny).
And there still needs to be actions taken against AM hate radio stations 620 and 1130 in Milwaukee, 1310 in Madison, and 1360 in Green Bay, and the advertisers that enable their garbage to stay on the air. You covered up, deflected and spread countless hours of propaganda for this bum, and violated the public’s trust for throwing away any shred of objectivity and decency you may have had. We are still long overdue for the “balance in media” rallies that need to happen in this state.
Because not only has Scott Walker been exposed as a foolish fraud on the campaign trail, so has most of the Wisconsin media. And while Scotty seems to be finally getting some accountability for his pathetic act, shouldn’t Wisconsin’s corporate media also pay a price for what they’ve done, and are still trying to do, in promoting this disgusting fraud?
To be honest, I hope he continues his dog and pony show well into the primaries: he declared his candidacy less than eight weeks ago and I'm not sure that there's been nearly enough time to leave the kind of impression on Wisconsin voters that'll last until 2018. This is far less intense than all the profound negatives of his first 17 months in office and that didn't prevent him from winning in 2014.
ReplyDeleteSince we're be stuck with him for the next 2 1/2 years, the best plausible outcome is that he blows his campaign coffers getting no traction nationally while making himself a toxic brand that WisGOPers in the Legislature will want to disassociate themselves from.
And there are some signs that the media in Wisconsin isn't entirely full of Walker apologists: the WSJ's surprise endorsement of Burke last year and more recently the Lakeland Times' calling for his recall. Even the JS Editorial Board is no longer gushing his praises at every opportunity.
I read the Guardian piece a few days back, and it has one of the best opening sentences in recent memory.
ReplyDelete