Click bait. Neck and
neck? HRC is up 4 points in a poll two years before for the election when
neither candidate officially declared they are running
Rice? I read she’s going to be working on an education project for John Ellis Bush, you know, the charter school operations he loves so much that often fail.
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While that is true, the huge lead she had 3 months ago was much higher than it was a few months before that. In late 2013, she trailed Christie outright. So much of this polling is just noise.
Just about four years ago Herman Cain was pretty hot also…
Debates rarely make a big difference. Especially, if you look at who wins on substance!
People who listened to nixon thought he won, people who saw kennedy on tv thought he won. Style is as important as substance.
The media will do its usual…did candidate X under-perform or over-perform…
And that is where Hillary will be at a disadvantage. Everyone will be expecting her to clean Walker’s clock. If he is still standing and has a pulse…they will say he surpassed expectations and is the winner.
4 points is neck and neck? Jesus, I am so tired of hyperbole.
“Scott Walker Most Competitive Against Clinton”
So stop already with the polls. They are meaningless at this juncture.
Don’t waste the ink or pixels.
Enjoy it while it lasts, governor, because it won’t last long. Anyone who delves deeper than sound bites on the evening news will discover that you’re a better politician than you are a governor, that you’re not that bright, and that you have no creative policy solutions to national problems. You haven’t learned yet that doing what the right-wing catechism tells you to do doesn’t make a perfect world. I won’t miss you when you fall off the national stage.
In 1979, Ronald Reagan was dismissed by the Democrats because he was an intellectual lightweight who would have his head served back to him on a platter by Carter. Through a series of unexpected and incrementally positive steps, Reagan rose to the top of the Republican heap and won the 1980 election. GWB, an intellectual equal of Reagan’s, was able to overcome his lack of gravitas with his appeal to “likability”. Both Reagan and Bush cloaked their extremism in likability. What candidates think matters less than how they make the electorate feel in a visceral way. The fact that progressive Wisconsinites did not turn out in sufficient numbers to defeat Walker in off year elections tells me he is not completely unlikable.
The unknown about Walker is whether or not he can cultivate a feeling of trust and positivity in 50%+ of the electorate. The major influences on these elements will be grooming and money and self-control. . The money will flow where the electorate go. Koch and Adleson money is still up for grabs. Walker is trying to avoid stepping in the many steaming piles that will cause him to take on an overly offensive odor on his way through the Republican primary and prevent the money from flowing to him. So far he has not done too much self-inflicted damage. If Jeb turns his cash on Walker, it may completely backfire with the Republican primary voters. Walker is not that vulnerable from the right the way Jeb is.
I recall Reagan said some pretty outrageously stupid things in 1979 that did not prevent him from winning the presidency in 1980 . Walker is not trying to convince anyone here at TPM he is worthy of their vote, he is simply trying to avoid being considered a pariah or complete idiot. The fact that both Reagan and W won (or tied) the presidential election twice each should make it clear intellectual bonafides are not a prerequisite for getting elected president. It appears to me that Walker has done a remarkable job of cultivating a majority in 3 gubernatorial elections in Wisconsin which means he has not sufficiently offended the sensibilities of voters with the power to defeat him simply by voting in a state with same day election registration. I am agnostic on Walker’s chances both in the primary and general, but I wouldn’t dismiss him just yet.
I have not published any polls myself.
Walker stands for something very clear–it’s ridiculous and awful, but he stands for it. He has a strong aggressive agenda. What does Clinton stand for? What does she propose to do? Does she have a program? Some policy issues? Crickets.
It’s early. But wouldn’t it be great to have a Democrat who could articulate goals with the clarity Walker does?
I can wait to hear Walker debate and answer every question with “I’m going to punt on that one.”
New, yes, but bright? shiny? Not so much. He always looks like somebody just woke him up.
Was not suggesting you were.
Craig Gilbert’s coverage of Walker in The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is essential reading:
Wisconsin isn’t a purple state. It’s a red-and-blue calico.
The confederacy of dunces.