Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker’s short-lived presidential campaign revealed four things about him:
- Scott Walker is far more intellectually challenged than ever imagined. His Great Wall of Canada “legitimate issue” may well be the least rational idea ever proposed by a presidential candidate. Yet, not far behind is his statement that there are only a “handful of reasonable, moderate followers of Islam” among the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. And, his assertion that dealing with the teacher’s union prepared him to handle ISIS is a classic.
- Scott Walker makes stuff up. Most politicians embellish their records. However, Walker takes this a huge step further making up blatant lies. Throughout his presidential campaign, Walker told about the February 15, 2011 incident in LaCrosse, Wisconsin when hundreds of union protestors rocked his car, beat on the windows and pulled a truck in front of Walker and his security detail car blocking their escape path. However, according to La Crosse law enforcement and reporters covering the event, it never happened. The most thorough investigation of the incident is at Politifact.com’s website http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/dec/23/scott-walker/gov-scott-walker-says-protesters-surrounded-his-ca/. Walker’s penchant for telling people what they want to hear, regardless of the truth, came through in a meeting with Republican donors about President Obama’s leadership. Walker told the roomful of donors, “I heard that from David Cameron back in February earlier when we were over at 10 Downing, I heard it from other leaders around the world. They’re looking around realizing this lead from behind mentality just doesn’t work. It’s just not working.” British Prime Minister Cameron issued a statement saying he never said that and does not believe it.
- Scott Walker is broke. According to the Boston Globe, Walker’s total net worth is minus $72,500. http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/GovScott-Walker-debt-credit-cards-owes/2015/04/28/id/641333/ His personal financial statements show caviar tastes on a beer budget. Walker is a spendthrift with no respect for debt. He has between $100-250,000 of school loan debts for his two sons, owes more than $50,000 to Green Tree, a mortgage loan company, owes between $5-50,000 to Think Bank for an unspecified debt, owes between $10-15,000 on a Barclay’s credit card, $10-15,000 on a Bank of America card and up to $50,000 on a Sears card. He is paying 27.24% interest on the Barclay card and 11.99% on the Bank of America one. That’s a lot of $1.00 Kohl’s sweaters.
- Scott Walker is a hypocrite. In suspending his presidential campaign, Walker stated, “Sadly, the debate taking place today in America is not focused on an optimistic view of America. Instead it has drifted into personal attacks.” Duh, excuse me? Is this the same Governor Scott Walker that launched countless attack ads against “Millionaire Mary” in 2014? Then in the last few days before the gubernatorial election, his campaign dredged up some fired Trek employees to personally attack Mary Burke’s record at Trek.
You can’t cure stupid
What’s left of Scott Walker’s supporters are looking for him to bounce back on the national stage in a few years with a different campaign team. Unfortunately for them, Walker’s campaign team isn’t the problem. What these supporters must accept is that stupid is forever.
While Walker’s campaign revealed much about him, it also showed the strengths of our long, drawn-out presidential campaigns. Walker was annointed as the favorite of the Koch brothers and other billionaires, assuring him unlimited campaign funding. Yet, voters recognized Walker was intellectually incapable of keeping up with fast paced debates, continually said foolish things and changed positions depending on who he was talking to. Regardless of his financial backing,voters sent him packing.
