Ranking as one of the biggest flops in recent presidential elections, Scott Walker ended his presidential bid on Monday. Walker should have soared in this political climate after becoming something of a folk hero to Republicans for his battles with government employee unions. When he entered the race, Walker was in the top tier. With his time in the national limelight in Wisconsin and his appeal as a conservative who won in a generally blue state, Walker looked like someone who could go the distance. As a leading Midwest Republican, Walker also looked set to play well in Iowa, home of the first presidential caucus.
But it all fell apart. Walker might have been an outsider to the Beltway but conservatives preferred candidates with no electoral experience like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. After much consideration, John Kasich jumped in, splitting Walker’s Great Lakes base. In the two debates he took part in, Walker was a nonfactor. In last week’s debate, Walker spent more time talking about foreign policy than he did over his fight with the unions.
Even worse, Walker was clearly unprepared for the national spotlight -- a bit of a surprise after he took on the unions and survived a recall. In particular, Walker had a problem with Trump’s appeal to conservatives. The Wisconsin governor danced all over the place on whether or not he agreed with Trump’s call for birthright citizenship. Calling for a wall with Canada didn’t help Walker any. Even worse, Walker soon looked like he was flip-flopping on the matter as well as other issues such as ethanol subsidies which are always a concern in Iowa.
After putting all his chips on Iowa and fundraising dried up, Walker bowed to reality and got out of the race on Monday. Walker joins John Connelly, Phil Gramm, Fred Thompson, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Perry as candidates who started at the head of the pack and ended up a nonfactor in the race. Even with his call for better security on the border of Canada, Walker never made the memorable series of gaffes that Perry did in the 2012 cycle or appeared as lethargic as Thompson did. But, if not as dramatic, Walker’s fall was just as real.
Hailing from a state Republicans would love to swing away from the Democrats and brandishing an everyman image that contrasted with Jeb Bush’s, Hillary Clinton’s or Trump’s, Walker should have been a contender. Instead, the Wisconsin governor will go down as the chief victim of the “summer of Trump” and a minor player in what is becoming the most fluid Republican presidential contest since Wendell Willkie shocked the political world and won the nomination at the 1940 convention in Philadelphia.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
