Will Trump do to Hillary what he has done to Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Rick Perry and Scott Walker?and

Ross Kaminsky, though not a fan of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, writes at Spectator.org.,

The Donald has a remarkable ability to break through conventional restrictions on acceptable political conversation and to make people think about issues in ways opponents call “extreme” but which resonate among much of the American public. Beyond his base, he is having this effect, whether for good or for ill, on millions of Americans who would not consider voting for Mr. Trump in a general election.

...A large part of Trump’s appeal is his willingness to say things that other politicians won’t say. In that willingness he comes across to many, especially the lightly informed, as a noble truth-teller. And even for those who would not vote for an arrogant often-wrong blowhard, Trump nevertheless plants in their minds toxic seeds that have roughly the same effect on his opponents’ favorability ratings that Roundup has on the weeds in your lawn.

He’s done it to Jeb Bush, he’s done it to Ben Carson, he did it early on to Rick Perry and then to Scott Walker — feats that he isn’t shy to remind us about. And now his aim has turned toward Hillary Clinton. Unless she is some sort of GMP (Genetically Modified Politician) who is immune to political Roundup, she should be very worried.

In Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate (the timing says a lot about whether the DNC actually wants anybody watching), Hillary Clinton claimed that Donald Trump “is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter” and that “they are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”

Even the liberal-leaning Politifact.com rated Clinton’s claim as false, concluding that “Clinton has turned speculative left-of-center rhetoric into fact” and that “evidence does not exist” to support her slanderous accusation.

As NBC’s Chuck Todd put it on Sunday, “no fact checker has been able to back up her claim on that.”

...The more Trump can convince moderate and independent voters that Hillary’s strongest arguments for herself are somewhere between irrelevant and disqualifying, the harder it becomes for her to carry those swing voters who now determine American elections.

Read more here.

People of the year

Who would you select to be the people of the year in 2015? Jim Geraghty

went with three figures who I felt represented exactly what the country needed at this tumultuous time. Seven years of Obama have steered the country far to the left, and then crashed it on the rocks. We’re economically stagnant, our federal bureaucracy is bloated and unresponsive, we’re depressed, and living in fear. We need that right combination of principled conservatism and a serious record of reforms, firsthand knowledge of how to steer a government away from the left and to government’s true priorities. This year, the three men who best exemplified the change we need were . . . Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal.

Now, there’s this small detail that the GOP donor class, poll respondents, and everyone else rejected those three. But I think that says more about the poor judgment and bad criteria of the party today than these governors and their records.

Greg’s pick: The family members of the Charleston shooting victims who spoke in the courtroom and told the shooter they forgave him, demonstrating the depth and breadth of their Christian faith.

A great record, or a great campaigner?

What matters most in the presidential races, having a great record of accomplishments, or being a great campaigner? Scott Walker and Rick Perry, both governors with records of significant accomplishments, but neither a very good campaigner, have dropped out of the GOP race.

Mark Steyn writes,

...if you have in effect a three-year election campaign then the ability to campaign becomes what matters: that's the "record" that counts.

Scott Walker bows out

He wants a "positive conservative alternative to the current front runner." What? Trump is the one who keeps saying he'll make America great again. Why is that not a positive message? Walker is a yuge disappointment.

Scott Walker slipping in Iowa

I am delighted to see that Iowa, the state of my birth more than a few years ago, now has Dr. Ben Carson in second place among the GOP candidates in the latest CNN poll. Dr, Carson exudes the kind of sense of humor and personal grace that I remember Iowans as having. Unfortunately, Donald Trump remains far out in front.







Allahpundit writes at Hot Air,

As for Walker, the bad poll news continues. He lost the most ground of anyone at the debate across various polls this week and now he’s slipped to single digits in Iowa, a state where he was polling at around 20 percent and leading the field less than a month ago. Trumpmania and, to a lesser extent, Carsonmania have hurt him, and if Cruz has a breakout debate performance in him (as pretty much everyone assumes), he could end up chasing Cruzmania before too long. His decline is the biggest story of this poll, I think, just because he’s the only top-tier candidate for whom Iowa is a must-win. He was born there, he leads a midwestern state, he’s got sterling evangelical credentials — he should be the favorite. If he disappoints, what other early states does he win?

Read more here.

Aggressively normal

That's how Scott Walker is selling himself. Are we ready for that, after Obama's glamour? Jon Gabriel writes at Ricochet about the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, who

had fundamentally transformed the federal government into an oppressive entity that regularly jailed detractors, instituted a then-unimaginable level of regulation, and created the first income tax. Our battered soldiers returned from the charnel houses of Europe to find an executive branch pushing for an even more robust internationalism. By the time the president was incapacitated by stroke (a fact hidden for months), most Americans had had enough.

After Wilson, we had three successive "normal" American presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

In many ways Walker is the heir to Silent Cal; a leader focused on concrete results with minimal rhetoric and even less drama. He spent his time as a county executive and governor methodically rolling back the worst excesses of government as the world flailed around him. The unwashed progressives in Madison ranted and raved, but Walker remained the eye of the storm. Unions threatened his family, judges harassed his friends, and MSNBC’s Ed Schultz held a year-long St. Vitus’ dance, while the governor stretched in his church pew, dreaming about hot ham.

If we’re frustrated with politics now, we’ll desperate for relief by November 2016. If Scott Walker is able to capitalize on that mood — starting with a definition of what “normal” even means anymore — the White House chef might need to stock up on hot ham and rolls.

Are Jeb Bush and Scott Walker sitting on their non-leads?

That is what Mark Steyn thinks.

On Thursday, a lackluster Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the Number 2 and 3, seemed to see themselves as the real frontrunners, playing it safe. I don't think that was a smart move, as I said to Sean (Hannity):

"Donald Trump — you would have to drive a stake through him. So simply because no one did drive a stake through him, he survived, and therefore, he won. So he's still in the game and he's still locking down whatever it is, 25 percent, 32 percent I think it is in South Carolina now. So he's the guy to beat. I thought most of the others did well within their own terms, although they're actually quite narrow terms. And the disappointment, I think, was with the number two and number three because I think Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, in a sense, were both sitting on their non-leads. They both of them, I think, took a sort of conscious decision to kind of do a low-key don't-frighten-the-horses thing and hope that when Trump implodes, that they're still in the number two or number three slot and they're the ones who take over. And I don't think that'll work, frankly."

...Many electors agree with Trump - that America is dying before their eyes. If that's the case, why should fealty to a party that bears a large measure of responsibility for that decay take precedence over love of country?

...The reality is that the GOP establishment, after their appalling behavior in the Hastert years, were given a second chance by the base in 2010, and a third chance in 2014. Now they're demanding a fourth chance - and people go, well, say what you like but a Republican president will at least get to appoint rock-ribbed Supreme Court justices, like, er, John Roberts, who constitutionalized Obamacare, and, um, Anthony Kennedy, who gave us federally mandated gay marriage. Boehner, McConnell, Kennedy, Roberts... Not much to show for a party that's been supposedly dominant for 35 years, is it?

The GOP thinks the issue is Trump; much of the base thinks the issue is the GOP.

Read more here.

Scott Walker a great foreign policy president?

Kim Hughes believes Scott Walker would make a great foreign policy president. Read why here.

Inauguration Day, 2017

Before retiring tonight, I was in the mood for some satirical humor. Manhattan Infidel did not disappoint. He writes about his interview with Scott Walker, the Monster who does not have a college degree, but who was giving his inaugural address as President of the United States. An excerpt:

The group then unfurled a banner that read “America: Run by professionals forever. Those without degrees never!”

Our allies wanted us to make a powerful statement. A statement that said how attached we, as professionals are, to our positions as the rulers of America. We thought of perhaps bombing the inauguration. But as college educated men and women we decided to do what we do best: Write a strongly worded protest. And that’s what we have done What have you got to say for yourself Walker? Why didn’t you graduate college?

President Walker then took the microphone and uttered his rebuttal.

“I had a job.”

With that the College graduates for social justice and college degrees ceded the podium but not before complaining that President Walker could have at least given them a trigger warning before telling them that he was employed as a capitalist.

“Not only is he not a professional but he’s one of them!’ could be heard as the group left the stage.

Read more here.

Trump attacks Scott Walker in Iowa

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times covered Trump's speech today in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

To the list of Republican rivals he has insulted, Donald J. Trump on Saturday added a new name: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whom he accused of mismanaging his state’s budget and creating a disaster for its roads, schools and hospitals.

Mr. Walker, who has been restrained in criticizing Mr. Trump’s provocative remarks compared with other Republican presidential candidates, is leading in the polls in Iowa, a fact that seemed to gall Mr. Trump, the golf course entrepreneur and former reality star.

“I can’t believe I’m in second place,’’ Mr. Trump told several hundred people who filled a high school auditorium and an overflow room to see him. “Folks, will you please put me in first place so I feel better?”

Read more here.

Walker, Perry hire establishment operatives

Renee Nal writes at NoisyRoom.net,

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry seems to have largely escaped the scrutiny recently directed toward Scott Walker for hiring establishment operative Brad Dayspring who aggressively lied about the Tea Party during the hotly contested Mississippi primary last year.

While Scott Walker, who this author has long suspected of as having establishment sympathies, has been appropriately getting heat for hiring a pro-Cochran thug, Rick Perry should also be called out for his “terrible hires,” including Henry Barbour (who previously worked for Perry), and should be “censured” and is “quite possibly the most despised campaign consultant in the entire conservative movement,” “McCain flunkie” Steve Schmidt (who believes that Sarah Palin “is filled with anger, has a divisive message”) and Austin Barbour (who also worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign) as senior adviser to three of Perry’s super PACs.

Read more here.

It is Ben Carson in Colorado

Who is the most popular 2016 GOP presidential candidate among Colorado conservatives? Apparently it is Dr. Ben Carson, who, for the second year in a row won the straw poll conducted by the Western Conservative Summit, which just ended a three day run in Denver. John Andrews reports that

Dr. Ben Carson won with 224 votes. Carly Fiorina came in second with 201 votes and Scott Walker was a close third with 192 votes.

Rubio, Fiorina, and Walker

Scott Ott is writing profiles in PJ Media of each of the Republican 2016 potential candidates. Today he tells us why Scott Walker should be the nominee. He did the same for Carly Fiorina here, and Marco Rubio here.

Cruz and Walker can win

Dick Morris believes Ted Cruz can become the next president. He is also impressed with Scott Walker. Both men will be attacked by the leftwing media. However, both will be able to fire up voters who stayed home the last two elections. Watch the Morris video here.

Scott Walker: winning without caving

Tonight Hugh Hewitt interviewed Governor Scott Walker. I am sure the interview will be up soon on Hugh's website, if it isn't already. I am impressed with Walker. I'd put him at the top of the list of GOP candidates right now. Despite all the battles he has had with the left in Wisconsin, he still reaches across the aisle to Democrats to get things done.

Update: The interview is here. An excerpt:

Part of what you see here is the old Lenin adage that you probe with bayonets. If you find mush, you proceed. If you find steel, you withdraw. Well, in Ukraine, he’s found mush, and he’s found mush not only from the United States, but from others like, others and NATO partners out there. If it were to extend, and my belief is we need a president who’s going to act aggressively by giving lethal force to the Ukrainians and others to try to preempt that from happening. But a couple of weeks ago, I met with the president of Estonia. Certainly, we saw a week ago the Lithuanian leadership is literally giving out literature telling their own citizens what to do if Russians invade. Latvia, I just talked to someone the other day whose mother immigrated here from Latvia, and in each of those Baltic states, there are real serious concerns about what happens if we don’t deal with this in Ukraine. We need American leadership not just for America’s sake, but for the world.

...don’t personalize your differences, because your opponent today may be your ally tomorrow. And so that doesn’t mean you should back away from policy. Obviously, if people watch me, I didn’t back away from the big challenges. I took on the big issues not just on public employee unions, but right to work, you name it. And voter ID just got upheld the other day. We’ve done all the big issues. But we don’t personalize it. The other side might, at least some of the activists might. But I still meet every week with the Democratic leadership in the state assembly and state senate.

Obama attacks Governor Walker

BenK writes at Ace of Spades:

President Obama has decided to get involved in the 2016 race. I find it interesting that he's chosen to wade in by attacking Scott Walker and not Jeb Bush

I think we'll see a lot more of this as we get closer to the primary voting. The Democrats are going to do everything they can to ensure the next GOP candidate is someone who won't overturn most of Obama's "accomplishments". Aside from the Wall Street Class, Jeb Bush's biggest supporters outside the Republican party will be elected Democrats.

They're hedging their bets on the off chance that Mrs.Inevitable isn't so inevitable.

“Even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans – by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave,” Obama said.

Actually, giving everyone access to jobs that were previously only available to union due paying members is a victory for workers. It's just not a victory for the workers who donate to the Democratic party (or whose union dues are donated to the Democratic party against their objections.)

Can he handle Hillary?

Dick Morris is starting to wonder whether Scott Walker can handle himself on the national stage. In particular, can he take on Hillary? View the Morris video here.

The fuss about Scott Walker not finishing his college degree

Robert Tracinski writes,

Given that no president since Reagan hasn’t been a graduate of either Harvard or Yale—and they haven’t even gotten close to matching the results of the bumpkin who graduated from Eureka College—it’s certainly reasonable to suspect that those Ivy League credentials aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

But the whole controversy isn’t really about Scott Walker’s qualifications. It’s about something deeper.

...or the mainstream elites, particularly those at the top level in the media, a college education is not simply a means to an end. It is itself a key attainment that confers a special social status.

There are no real class divisions in America except one: the college-educated versus the non-college educated.

...You can see now what is fueling the reaction on the left. If Scott Walker can run for president, he is challenging the basic cultural class identity of the mainstream left. He is more than a threat to the Democrats’ hold on political power. He is a threat to the existing social order.

Read more here.

GOP power centers and their favorite candidates

Dick Morris is a political junkie, who is also very knowledgeable. Since I am also something of a political junkie, and one who is making an effort to become knowledgeable, I regularly read Morris and watch his videos. In today's video Morris talks about the three Republican power centers. The first is the Bush money machine, which Morris says is capable of raising upwards of a billion dollars. The second power center is the Koch brothers operation, which is a conglomeration of patriotic groups such as the Tea Party, which heavily influenced the GOP victories in 2010 and 2014. The third power center are the evangelicals.

Power center one: Jeb Bush. Power center two: Scott Walker seems to be emerging, although Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio might still capture this power center. Evangelicals: Mike Huckabee.
Go here to watch the Morris video.

Accomplishments and practical skills are more important than credentials

Glenn Reynolds has a column in USA Today about the fact that the GOP may nominate someone who did not finish college (Scott Walker) as their candidate for president next year.

A lot of people don't know much about him yet, and he may not even be running, but if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is elected president in 2016, he'll immediately accomplish something that no other candidate being talked about can: He'll lay to rest the absurd belief that you're a nobody if you don't have a college degree. And he might even cut into the surprisingly recent takeover of our institutions by an educated mandarin class, something that just might save the country.

...But the college degree — especially a degree from an elite school — has become an entry-level ticket into the educated mandarinate. In his important book, The New Class Conflict, Joel Kotkin calls it the "clerisy" — that now dominates government, journalism and academia. And as a result, an America that once prided itself on real-world achievement and practical good sense now runs largely on credentials.

...Already people can point to tech pioneers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as evidence that a college degree isn't essential to getting ahead. But just as electing America's first black president had a resonance that no other achievement did, so, perhaps, electing America's first non-college-grad president in many decades will serve to remind people that a college degree isn't the be-all and end-all, and that accomplishments and practical skills are, in the end, more important than credentials. It would be educational.

Read more here.