http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-lured-walker-into-a-bidding-war-he-could-not-win/article/2572547by David Freddoso
September 21, 2015
Scott Walker has dropped out of the presidential race, holding a news conference early this evening. This despite the fact that he began as arguably the best-positioned candidate to win the nomination.
A lot of people will blame Donald Trump. In one sense, they're wrong, and in another they're right. Trump, whose backers are mostly paleoconservatives and members of fringe groups coming to Republican politics from the outside, did not gobble up Walker's base. But what Trump did was to lure Walker into a bidding war he could not win.
Think back to fall 2013, when conservatives and the establishment were at war with one another. On paper, Walker seemed like the perfect guy to unite these two segments of the GOP. He was already a strong governor with impeccable conservative credentials and potentially considerable establishment support. He became a conservative rock-star during his 2011 fight with Wisconsin's public employee unions. He turned his state — a national leader in manufacturing — into a right-to-work state. He signed a host of conservative reforms. He also proved his political abilities in a 2012 recall election and then by winning re-election in 2014, all in a state that is not Republican by nature.
But in 2015, after announcing his bid for president, Walker became a different person. He behaved as if he felt that being himself would not be enough. And so he tried instead to be what he thought the electorate wanted. Reason's Peter Suderman documented this in a well-timed post earlier this afternoon, referring to Walker's "aggressive pandering, shameless flip-flopping," and "failure to clearly articulate and stick to his positions."
Suderman and others have noted how Walker famously flip-flopped on ethanol, and seemed at a loss to answer predictable questions about his Obamacare replacement plan. But the clearest and perhaps most illustrative example of his self-defeating behavior came on immigration.
Given his excellent record, Walker had no obligation to flip-flop on the moderate position he held, which included support for some kind of path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and increased legal immigration. The Walker who wrote his book, Unintimidated, would have stuck to his guns and defended his stance. But once in the presidential race, Walker decided he was going to compete with Donald Trump on this issue, even dabbling briefly in the crazy-talk of ending birthright citizenship. If Walker wanted to pander to restrictionists, there was no way he could ever outbid Trump.
It's not that most Republican voters are for "amnesty" or whatever you call it. In fact, immigration does not affect most Americans' lives and is just not that big an issue for most GOP primary voters — only 12 percent of Iowa Republican caucusgoers thought it their most important issue. But it's a lot harder to respect a candidate who is willing to turn on a dime just to satisfy a perceived constituency. It looks desperate and weak, and when there are so many other palatable alternatives, why go with the guy who seems desperate to be liked?
It's sad to see such a strong candidate undone — not just by Donald Trump, but by a lack of confidence in his own abilities. Walker may just not have been ready.
