Is Scott Walker a True Contender?

NBC News ^ | 01/29/2015 | PERRY BACON JR.

[SeekAndFind]

A Republican governor twice elected in a traditionally Democratic, Midwestern state. A record of achieving conservative goals and battling with his state's liberals. Openly devout and socially conservative enough for the evangelicals in the GOP, but not so religious to make non-churchgoing Republicans uncomfortable. A regular guy persona, in part because he didn't grow up rich like Mitt Romney or one of the Bushes

Those are the characteristics that have some Republicans excited about the potential candidacy of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who Tuesday formed a political committee called "Our American Revival" in the latest step towards his likely presidential run.

But those attributes also described former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty when he started campaigning for president four years ago. And Pawlenty's campaign went nowhere: he dropped out in 2011, months before the primaries started, after finishing third in an Iowa straw poll. As Walker starts his run, will be he able to turn his obvious assets into a strong presidential run? Or is he the next Tim Pawlenty?

Pawlenty, now the president of the D.C.-based Financial Services Roundtable, said in an interview that Walker has some advantages that Pawlenty himself did not four years ago.

"Because of his epic battles with the unions and other people in Wisconsin, he became a national figure with a national platform and a national fundraising base, which puts him in a stronger position than I was," Pawlenty said.

Walker, Pawlenty added, has had another advantage. Voters, particularly Republicans, will reward the management experience governors have more than in past campaigns,

[rrrod]

Yep....Im betting he will get the nom or at least be on the ticket with................

[Finny]

... but more importantly he lifted the economy of his state out of bankruptcy.

How did he accomplish that? What was his approach?

Honest question. I'm not well-read on Walker.

[Finny]

Pit Walker against someone like Hillary Clinton ...

Hillary Clinton has been, is, and barring a miracle (they happen), will always be loathed by a large majority of the American people. How the MSM portrays her is one thing. What people really think of her is another. Hillary Clinton could only win two ways. One, if 2016 is a two-horse race between Democrat and Republican, would be if American voters let the Republican lose. Like it did in 2012.

The only other way Hillary could win would be via a plurality split like her husband, with a clear majority rejecting her twice at the ballot box, if she has a second term, but even the MSM would meet its limit attempting to prop Hillary.

However, it would require a charismatic third-party candidate. Perot got enough folks fired up to vote "against" The Man, so to speak. A whole lot of Americans want to vote to cut back the power and scope of government, and both Republican and Democrats want to keep expanding government. American voters, at the ones who vote because they care, recognize it.

If a charismatic person can swing a little more than a third, that candidate could even win, but on the same plurality. At least neither liberal, Hillary or the Republican Democrat ala Romney, gets in without it looking pretty ugly, so I pray for a charismatic populist Christian conservative third-party candidate.