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[Goober McTuber]

Scott Walker has a press conference scheduled for 5 PM CDT. It's actually being held in Wisconsin, which probably indicates that he's pulling the plug.

I'm sure he'll blame someone else. Maybe the liberal media.

[mvscal]

[Wolfman]

More will do the same. There is only so much small donor money available. Those backed by big bucks and PACs will continue on to next March.

[Goober McTuber]

The Koch brothers promised him $900 million.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

The Koch brothers promised him $900 million.

I would think Walker would be thrilled at having so much Koch behind him.

[Mikey]

Scott Walker has a press conference scheduled for 5 PM CDT. It's actually being held in Wisconsin, which probably indicates that he's pulling the plug.

I'm sure he'll blame someone else. Maybe the liberal media.

Too bad. I sort of enjoyed watching him make an ass of himself.
And imagining punching him in the face.

[Diego in Seattle]

Good riddance.

The only good thing that's come out of WI is kringle.

[smackaholic]

He actually gave a pretty good reason. He admitted it is time to cull the herd. Hopefully another 7 or 8 will do the same. The trouble is, many of these guys don't have a day job, so they'll hang in there. I mean it's not like Pataki, Gilmore, Huckleberry have anything else to do tomorrow.

[Diego in Seattle]

He actually gave a pretty good reason. He admitted it is time to cull the herd. Hopefully another 7 or 8 will do the same. The trouble is, many of these guys don't have a day job, so they'll hang in there. I mean it's not like Pataki, Gilmore, Huckleberry have anything else to do tomorrow.

It's not a matter of whether or not they have anything to occupy their time with. It's about ego.

[smackaholic]

He actually gave a pretty good reason. He admitted it is time to cull the herd. Hopefully another 7 or 8 will do the same. The trouble is, many of these guys don't have a day job, so they'll hang in there. I mean it's not like Pataki, Gilmore, Huckleberry have anything else to do tomorrow.

It's not a matter of whether or not they have anything to occupy their time with. It's about ego.

I disagree. Rick Santorum hasn't had a real job since he got runned from the Senate. He is a professional presidential candidate.

[mvscal]

This is getting hilarious. Scrotey is melting hard. I'm sure he had to suck a lot of Koch to get in position to make a run. Now he's just a used cum rag and seems to be a little bitter about the experience.

Scott Walker Ends Presidential Campaign With A Shot At Trump

Though he never referenced Trump by name, his finger-pointing was clear as he bemoaned that the optimism personified by Ronald Reagan in the Republican Party had instead "drifted into political attacks."

"I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner," he continued. "This is fundamentally important to the future of the party and, ultimately, to the future of our country."

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolit ... l-campaign

His former staff in melting hard...

A former Scott Walker aide fired off a scorching tweetstorm about why Walker dropped out

A former top aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) fired off a series of tweets Monday afternoon explaining why the governor dropped out of the race.

Less than an hour after news broke that Walker would suspend his campaign, Liz Mair — a former Walker adviser who was forced to resign earlier this year after criticizing various aspects of Iowa politics — tweeted out more two dozen tweets explaining the governor's demise.

Mair blamed the governor's sagging poll numbers less on the anti-establishment political climate and more on a number of strategic miscalculations.
http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-wa ... out-2015-9

Not content to simply torpedo the Good Ship Scotty Pop, The Donald circled back around to strafe the lifeboats...

“The voters have focused on my proven ability to get things done and my positive vision to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement exclusive to Breitbart News.

“That is why I am leading in every poll. I look forward to Governor Walker supporting my campaign when I am the Republican nominee.”

[War Wagon]

The more I see and hear from Ben Carson, the more I think he's the only level headed adult in the room.

[Diego in Seattle]

The more I see and hear from Ben Carson, the more I think he's the only level headed adult in the room.

Of course you do. Like you he talks with imaginary beings & thinks that that a centuries-old piece of fiction should be the basis of our government. That certainly sounds level-headed to me![/sarcasm]

[Goober McTuber]

Way to take one for the team, Snotty.

I hate to say I told you so.

No, wait, I love saying that.

[Screw_Michigan]

I thought Walker was #1 tough guy for breaking the public sector unions? Pussy.

[Diego in Seattle]

I thought Walker was #1 tough guy for breaking the public sector unions? Pussy.

I guess the voters felt that he was overqualified with so much experience dealing with terrorists.

[smackaholic]

The more I see and hear from Ben Carson, the more I think he's the only level headed adult in the room.

Of course you do. Like you he talks with imaginary beings & thinks that that a centuries-old piece of fiction should be the basis of our government. That certainly sounds level-headed to me![/sarcasm]

How is it when Obama mentions g0d, it's OK. Is it the fact that it is obvious he doesn't believe a word of it? As much as I think they are mistaken, I respect someone who actually believes in g0d than I do someone who pretends to. Especially if he sat in the pews of rev god damn america for many years.

[Screw_Michigan]

How is it when Obama mentions g0d, it's OK. Is it the fact that it is obvious he doesn't believe a word of it? As much as I think they are mistaken, I respect someone who actually believes in g0d than I do someone who pretends to. Especially if he sat in the pews of rev god damn america for many years.

Because Christer America will never allow an atheist president to be elected.

[Left Seater]

How is it when Obama mentions g0d, it's OK. Is it the fact that it is obvious he doesn't believe a word of it? As much as I think they are mistaken, I respect someone who actually believes in g0d than I do someone who pretends to. Especially if he sat in the pews of rev god damn america for many years.

Because Christer America will never allow an atheist president to be elected.

If true why keep up the charade after being re-elected?

[Screw_Michigan]

For the sake of the Democratic party.

[Left Seater]

I wasn't aware Christer America was voting Democratic.

Guess I need to update my spreadsheet.

[smackaholic]

If true why keep up the charade after being re-elected?

Gotta keep the sheeple believing the fairy tale that the next generation of Overlords buy into that hogwash as well.

[Screw_Michigan]

I wasn't aware Christer America was voting Democratic.

Guess I need to update my spreadsheet.

Are you really this stupid or are you just acting as such? You seem to do this a lot.

[smackaholic]

I think Scott came to the realization that this just ain't his year. He is young. He can go back to Wisky, get re-elected a few dozen times over the next 8 years and give it another whack then. His cred went up a bit, I think. The kid's table debate crowd will hang around and milk it for awhile more because, fukk, they got nothing better to do.

[Goober McTuber]

I think Scott came to the realization that this just ain't his year. He is young. He can go back to Wisky, get re-elected a few dozen times over the next 8 years and give it another whack then. His cred went up a bit, I think.

You are the dumbest motherfucker on the internet. Period.

Walker has finally been exposed. The national media did to him what the local media here was afraid to do. His approval numbers here are approaching your IQ. Under 40, and heading south.

[Mikey]

I wasn't aware Christer America was voting Democratic.

Guess I need to update my spreadsheet.

Are you really this stupid or are you just acting as such? You seem to do this a lot.

Further proof that liberals only use blacks for votes.

Don't Southern Democrats also eat them?

[Left Seater]

Don't Southern Democrats also eat them?

They are extinct. The Southern Dems have all died and were buried. Their kids and grandkids carry on in the same conservative manner, but pull the R lever instead.

[mvscal]

Ben Carson is starting to look like the most logical choice if you're going to be sucked into the 2 party system.

Seems like a nice enough guy. He's a complete asstard, though.

[Goober McTuber]

Fun reading Snotty's local post mortems.

Scott Walker ran a bizarrely off-key campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

So it made sense that he would end that campaign with a tone-deaf attempt to portray his decision to quit the competition as an act of political heroism.

“Today, I believe I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field,” the governor of Wisconsin announced on Monday. “With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.”

Walker was not being driven from the race by low poll numbers and the prospect that his campaign cupboard would soon be empty, he asked us to believe.

No. No. No.

Walker was leading by leaving.

When politicians fail to realize their ambitions, yet retain those ambitions, any spin will do.

And in Scott Walker’s case, spin was all he was left with.

A presidential campaign that for a brief shining moment seemed inevitable had become impossible. And Walker was floundering about in search of an explanation.

Of course, anyone who was paying attention knew that the floundering had begun long before the governor’s hastily scheduled press conference at Madison’s Edgewater Hotel.

The fact is that Scott Walker never knew why he was running for president.

He just knew that he wanted to be president.

Thus, every statement Walker made after announcing his candidacy in mid-July sounded exactly like what it was: a desperate attempt to make Scott Walker the interesting and appealing candidate that he was never going to be.

No one beat Scott Walker for the nomination – not Donald Trump, not Jeb Bush, not Ben Carson, not Carly Fiorina.

Scott Walker talked himself out of the running.

Before his formal announcement, Walker’s three years of positioning – rather than governing Wisconsin – had earned him frontrunner status. He led the polls nationally and in key states.

With that formal announcement, however, Walker invited grassroots Republicans to begin paying serious attention to him.

Those Republicans were ready to be inspired, ready to be led.

But Walker could only offer them old war stories about wrangling with unions in Wisconsin.

That counted for something with the wealthiest Republican donors, who had invested tens of millions of dollars to defend Walker from the wrath of Wisconsinites who had been infuriated by the governor’s attacks on organized labor, public education and public services.

But it didn’t mean much to the voters who would decide the winner of the Republican caucuses in Iowa and the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. A lot of those voters worked for a living. And while they had been instructed by corporate America’s amen corner in the media to be angry with unions and living wages and teachers and public employees, they were never as enthusiastic as the billionaires who built their empires on a foundation of income inequality and wage stagnation.

Walker’s core message – union busting – never really resonated. Indeed, it started to hurt him, as even his allies giggled at the suggestion that refusing to respect the honest protests of teachers and nurses and librarians in Wisconsin had prepared him to respond to the most daunting of global threats.

Walker had to come up with another line to peddle.

And that’s where everything fell apart.

As Walker grew increasingly desperate to connect with the party faithful, his campaign degenerated into parody. When he was not pondering the prospect of walling off Canada, or imagining that President Obama was responsible for worsening racial tensions, the governor started to engage in appointment-book “boldness.” Walker promised he would rip up the nuclear agreement with Iran on his first day in office. Walker promised he would rip up Obamacare on his first day in office. Walker said he might have to start a war on his first day in office. When none of that worked, Walker simply announced his intention to “wreak havoc” in Washington.

None of the “bold” gestures worked. The governor’s poll numbers trended down, down, down, down – all the way to zero in a national CNN poll released Sunday.

Walker found himself facing the ugliest threat of the 2016 campaign cycle: banishment to the kids’ table in the next Republican debate. The man who had entered the race as a frontrunner was suddenly pondering the prospect that he could be the first top-tier contender to be ushered off the main stage.

Walker knows enough about politics to understand that, in the new calculus of the 2016 race, banishment to the kids’ table debate is not just embarrassing. It’s a potential career crusher.

And Walker, who has been an elected official since 1993, was not prepared to have his career crushed just yet. It may be true that no one else could imagine Walker as president, but the governor still could.

He was not about to fritter away future prospects by playing the “Dead Man Walker” role to which he was being assigned by the cruel fates of the 2016 race.

So Walker decided to “lead by helping to clear the field...”

Yes, of course, the line was laughable.

But he had nothing else to say.

While there was much talk about Walker running out of money, his elaborate networks of official and “independent” campaign operations still had sufficient resources to make a final push. Millions of donor dollars were still available to mount a media campaign to re-position the governor once more as a credible contender.

The problem was that Walker needed something to say: some message, some idea, some theme other than “erp, unions bad.” And it just wasn’t coming to him.

Walker had nothing to offer.

So he decided to quit rather than fight.

However, the governor who claimed to be “unintimidated” could not make a clean exit.

Unlike former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who left the race several weeks ago with a measure of grace, Walker still nurtured ambitions. Even if he could not be the party’s nominee, Walker told himself, he could be a “leader.”

That is the sort of calculation that makes a political careerist spin his swan song as an act of political courage and leadership.

Unfortunately for Walker, Republicans who could not see him as a leader when he was a candidate are not going to see him as a leader now that he is a footnote to the long 2016 campaign.

[mvscal]

...imagining that President Obama was responsible for worsening racial tensions

That isn't even remotely imaginary.

[Goober McTuber]

Not ready for prime time.