On Walker

My comment in Carl’s previous post was getting a bit long and morphed into this post.

“First off, I want to thank God. I want to thank God for his abundant grace and mercy – win or lose, it is more than sufficient for each and every one of us”

The above quote is how Scott Walker began his victory speech Tuesday night, after winning here in Wisconsin for the third time in four years (Gov. in 2010, recall in 2012, and Gov. in 2014). Here is the clip if you care to watch:

When I was watching it, I was sort of sitting there, mouth agape. What a way to start your speech. While I am not the most devout of individuals, I can appreciate a politician who answers to a higher and just power. The rest of the speech is good, after all of the thank you’s. Rebecca Kleefisch, our Lt. Governor is looking good out there too.

I have been emailing and texting Lex Green back and forth over the last few months about Walker. His campaign was one of the most interesting that I can remember. He simply circled the state nonstop. He shook hands and took photos at businesses for ribbon cuttings, job announcements, and the like. He stopped at farms to talk to people. He went to diners, restaurants and broke bread old school style. There were very few massive rallies. But every single day Walker was out there rubbing shoulders with, as O’Reilly calls them, “the folks”.

In contrast, his opponent had giant rallies with Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, and President Failure himself. The rally with the President was toward the end of the campaign and I think was a desperation “Hail Mary”, so to say. Walker’s opponent was one of the few Democrats that wanted a photo op with the President toward the end of the campaign. Walker actually took time to take a photo with the President a few months ago when he was in the state. At that time, Walker’s opponent was still at arm’s length from the President – what a juxtaposition.

The polls were always wrong. They were pegging the race as a dead heat, but I called it from the start – Walker was ahead comfortably. I think he knew it from his internal numbers. He never showed any sign of desperation whatsoever. So this could be just bad polling data, or the polls could have been in cahoots with the media to sell more ads, and/or the Democrats to help pull their (bad) candidate over the line.

For the last four years, Scott Walker has been subjected to the very worst of the worst. The capital building packed with “protesters”, dumb drum circles, and all the rest. They even came out with some sort of “freedom flotilla” and were shouting at the executive residence from Lake Mendota. The politically motivated John Doe investigations failed. Act 10 stands. The whole state of Wisconsin is still run by Republicans; Governor, Assemblly, Senate, AG, and now even Treasurer. I love the Republican who won the office of Treasurer running on the platform of eliminating it since it is basically a symbolic office. I hope he actually does it.

The bond rating for Wisconsin over the last several years has gone to practically gold status, relative to other states, and on the 10 year, the spread to AAA is only around 25 basis points. Compare that spread to Illinois at 156 basis points. Wisconsin’s pensions are 99.9% funded, number one in the US tied with South Dakota (compare to Illinois at under 40%). Wisconsin is running a gigantic surplus, and through Act 10, the cities and other municipalities aren’t locked into monopolistic negotiations with the government unions. And on and on.

Through all of the attacks, Walker has come through them with the sort of class that I have rarely seen. If people were threatening my family, I would just start shooting and ask questions later, in a figurative sense. I think Walker actually just sits down and prays for them. It is readily apparent that he is driven by religion and actually cares about people and the State.

I would be sad if we lost him to the job of President, but I think he certainly has the stones for it after what he has been subjected to here. The state would be left in good hands with Rebecca Kleefisch, but time will tell to see if she could win an election. I always think of this clip of Walker during the “protests” when he was handing out awards to Special Olympians and some sort of zombie protest entered the ceremony. It is easily the most disgusting event of the whole “protest” deal.

I would have gone nuts. But he just held his own and continued. Pretty amazing.

I hope he can convince you to vote for him if he decides to run. You won’t be disappointed. Then again, it is early, and I imagine there might be something in Walker’s past that might hurt him, but at this point, after all the angst we have seen in Wisconsin, I am having a hard time imagining what that may be. Time will tell, as always.