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| Governor Scott Walker |
Dallas, TX - It wasn’t supposed to be this way. On Monday, 47 year old Evangelical Christian Scott Walker, former college dropout was not supposed to be able to announce, as he did, that he was running for the nomination of the Republican Party for the Presidency of the United States of America. The reason it wasn’t supposed to happen was because by this time Scott Walker should have been a dead meat forgotten about politician without a career.
Scott Walker did all the things you don’t do if you want to
become president. He dropped out of college before he finished his degree to go
and work for the Red Cross. And then he decided to become a far-right
conservative, the sort of thing that doesn’t generally get you very far in a
nation where the established ideal is many different variations of
go-along-to-get-along.
Walker has gone through 14 different elections in his career,
and he’s won 12 of them. Along the way he has gotten through a recall election
partway through his first term as a coalition of labor unions in his home state
united in attempts to destroy him after he passed laws which harmed the
collective bargaining rights of some unions. Walker shouldn’t have survived
that test, just as by the numbers he probably shouldn’t have won the election
for governor in the first place in the liberal state of Wisconsin, and
Democrats move hell and high water to try and be certain that in his third
election in four years, in 2014, Walker would finally lose. Many thought he would,
but he once again the balding governor came out on top.
Through all of this Walker has kept his sights on the
ultimate prize in politics, the Oval Office, and now he is moving towards it
with his official announcement. And the truth is that in a field of 14 other
candidates, Walker has one of the best chances.
No one else besides perhaps Bush and Trump have Walker’s name
recognition, and Trump is known for being a reality TV Star with lots of hair
and Bush is known as the brother of one president and son of another.
Walker is known for so, so much more.
His fight with unions has raised his conservative credentials
in many people’s eyes, as has his recent signing into law of prolife bills in
his state. Walker, while being highly conservative, has managed to remain above
the “crazy conservative” side of the party, and the fact that he is not a
southerner may very well be a great selling point for him.
Walker has been accused by some, the New York Times included, of lacking intelligence and
sophistication. While Walker may not have an IQ of 180, he certainly must be a
highly intelligent man to have won so many campaigns and now be running for
president. Being a governor, and with Walker, economically at least, being a
relatively good one, isn’t for the dense or the idiots. Most Americans probably
know that, and the fact that he doesn’t have a college degree probably won’t
hurt Walker too much except in place like California and the East Coast, places
he never was likely to win anyway.
What any candidate in this race needs, and what Walker has,
is a folksy air that shows him or her off as a candidate of the people, and no
one can deny that Walker is at the same time personable and dignified. Even
Walker’s former opponent in a race well over a decade ago, Mary Jo Baas, said
of Walker “When he talked to a group of people, people felt like he was one of
them. He knew what connected, what resonated."
Lots of people don’t like Bush, lots of people don’t like
Trump, some think Rubio is too young, Cruz too crazy, Carson too mild, Christi
too corrupt, and Rand Paul too libertarian for their vote. There are other people
running, but nobody knows who they are. So the only left for those people seems
to be Scott Walker, which may be the reason that he is polling in first in
Iowa.
Walker has skeletons in his closet, to be sure. That’s sort
of the way in politics. But the people in Wisconsin know about them, the
stories of supposed corruption, of his close staffers being accused of wrong
doing, every true story and many that probably weren’t have been paraded
against Walker, but still, in the blue state he was able to win. So apparently
the skeletons aren’t bad enough to cause his downfall.
As of this morning, according to the nonpartisan poll
averages site Real Clear Politics, Walker is behind Bush and Trump with nearly
10% of the vote for third place.
The field is very crowded, and the debates have not yet come.
But it can be said of Walker. Even at this early junction while his own
campaign is not yet 72 hours old. He is a man who could, possibly, maybe, and
with a side order of we really don’t know, pull out a win.
Andrew C. Abbott
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