Sunday, March 1, 2015

Archiving Walker's mounting fumbles

Couldn't help but notice in his ISIS=protesters FUBAR this "in their power" remark. Do we have multiple commanders-in-chief?
“I want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil,” said Walker, a likely Republican 2016 presidential candidate. “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”
OK, OK - - you say I'm making too much out of a grammatical slip.

But Walker is so unprepared, and can think so poorly on his feet that he is leaving potential backers speechless. Take a look at this description of more Walker stumbles, some of which I'd written about yesterday. 

In front of big-time right-wing financiers, Walker revealed he knew so little about Dodd-Frank that it might as well have been thinking about a new-style hot dog:
At CPAC, he gave a forceful speech, but when asked how he would fight the Islamic State he gave a non-answer. He then suggested he was ready to be commander in chief after dealing with 100,000 union protesters. It was inaptly put, but the absence of substantive answers and the comparison to a handful of candidates who spoke in-depth on an array of national security issues left some supporters shaken.
Then came his appearance at Club for GrowthThe coverage has been harsh.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “The event was moderated by Frayda Levin, a member of the Club board who is supporting Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in the coming presidential race. In addition to her direct questioning on foreign-policy, Ms. Levin grilled Mr. Walker on what changes he would make to the Dodd-Frank financial-markets reforms. After a lengthy answer in which the Wisconsin governor failed to suggest specific changes, she referred to concerns small community banks have with the law and asked him, ‘So, are you just not that aware of what’s happening with Dodd-Frank?’ ”
Asked about foreign policy, he said the most important foreign policy decision in his lifetime was Ronald Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers... in Walker’s lifetime there have been the Gulf wars, the Iraq surge, the response to 9/11, the reunification of Germany and a host of other events. 
An adviser with a rival campaign conceded that former secretary of state George P. Shultz, who has met with many presidential candidates, often observes that was a critical moment in the Reagan presidency, but the adviser argued that it was “not in any way a foreign policy decision and therefore no one would ever call this the most significant foreign policy decision in anyone’s lifetime.” 
The adviser added,”To call it a foreign policy decision is completely ludicrous.”

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, it's not like you, labor, the broad coalition against Scott Walker, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Dan Bice did not warn the rest of the nation about the shallowness of Scott Walker's cognitive skills and the impoverished intellectual agility of the man.

You might wish to consider penning an op-ed in the New York Times: The Scott Walker Wisconsin Knows.

Sue said...

This isn't just a humiliation for Scott Walker. How does someone who's been in public office basically his whole adult life step onto the national stage so unprepared?
This is a reflection on state media as well. Scott Walker is not used to being questioned, he's not used to prepping for tough questions, he's not used to anyone looking deeper than the surface of his policies and actions, he's not used to providing anything more detailed than a statement from an aide in response to a request.
The reason he considers anything he has to stumble through as a 'gotcha' is because he's seldom had to go past the starting line of a legitimate question related to his political life. And you don't get like that after decades in office without someone - or lots of someones - enabling you.
He's almost totally inexperienced and those who have been propping him up and supporting him by, y'know, not really asking anything of him have contributed to this embarrassing situation.

Anonymous said...

Ummmmm...

They aren't fumbles when the stenographers in the corporate media catapult each item you cite as "proof" of walker's resolve, toughness, and strength.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the usual pro-walker media assets have neutered and spun all your points to support their guy walker.

TJP said...

It is obvious that the MJS has done a terible job of preparing SKW for the real world.

Fran said...

The latest gaffe,
New York Times:
"G.O.P. Race Starts in Lavish Haunts of Rich Donors
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and JONATHAN MARTINFEB. 28, 2015
In an interview, Mr. Walker said he was unconcerned about the appearance of spending so much time and energy courting donors, noting that he expected to do plenty of retail campaigning in the months ahead.
“Oh, I think along the way I’ll be at plenty of dairy events and farm events and factories just like when I was governor,” Mr. Walker said."
Why didn't someone wake me for this happy event. He's no longer governor.

Anonymous said...

Gaaa! How many times did he run for Governor before he was elected? Rather how many years did he run for Governor? He started running as soon as he was elected in a recall election as Milwaukee CO executive. He will run for president until he wins or dies so we'd all better be prepared to fight this guy for a very long time. He doesn't do policy. He doesn't create jobs or negotiate or know anything about how the world works. He runs for office. That's what he does. He repeats talking points. He shakes hands. He works on his image. He is mentally lazy and loves the spotlight. We will be watching Scott Walker run for office until he dies or wins.

Sue said...

Unfortunately, Fran, once he's no longer a presidential candidate (assuming he's not laughed off the stage before he gets a chance to declare), he'll be coming back to Wisconsin full time. And he's gonna be crabby as hell. I wonder how he's going to take it out on poor people, or women, or kids? He's wrung pretty much everything out of us that he can already because that's what he does for fun, I hate to see what a vindictive Scott Walker is going to look like.

my5cents said...

This is what you get from a puppet with a script and the biggest ego in the U.S.A. Don't expect anything else. He's not capable of giving an intelligent on-the-spot answer to any serious question.

my5cents said...

Sue, the more you see what he has put in his next two-year budget the more you will realize he is already taking it out on poor people, the elderly, the disabled, women and kids. By the time he loses and comes back there will be no one left to take it out on. Maybe he will turn on his own then. Who knows what his next script looks like, but he is not a leader.

Anonymous said...

He'll be around to finish his term but then he'll get a gravy spokesperson job paying big bucks for one of the ultra right wing conservative front groups and he'll be a regular on Fox News. He's Sarah Palin in men's clothes! Sadly you all are correct by the time he exits Wisconsin there is not going to be much left. I feel that tons of us are going to have to take over the Capitol and threaten Walker's lap dog legislators with removal from office in 2016 if they adopt this killer budget that Walker has put forth! This budget will destroy the services that are needed more than ever because of what Walker has done to our economy, education, and environment!