PrairiePundit

NY Times: Gov. Scott Walker Goes Back to His Day Job His presidential campaign over, Mr. Walker has relations to soothe in Wisconsin, a state that feels a bit forgotten, some political operatives say. Both Walker in the current race and Perry in the 2012 contest made the mistake that running on their record of success as governors would be enough to propel them into the White House.  Both  were very good governors who showed a knack for executive decision making.  What they found when they got into the race was they need to respond to questions outside their comfort zones and they were unprepared to do so.  Perry was much more prepared this go round but he was not able to stir enough interest and money for a second chance.  It is too bad, because he would have made a very good President.

NY Times: Scott Walker Is Said to Be Quitting Race for President Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has concluded he no longer has a path to the nomination and plans to drop out of the campaign, according to Republicans familiar with his decision. His numbers were shrinking with each halting performance with the media and in the debates.  That made it hard fro him to raise the money needed to remain viable.  He will join ?Rick Perry on the side lines.  Both were successful governors.

USA Today: Iowa poll: Trump still leads, but dented by debate Fiorina also got a big boost from her performance in the earlier debate.  Bush has slipped to eighth in the poll.

She turns the question around and shows Republicans how to answer the abortion question.  This group of candidates is much more adept at dealing with the empathy plays by the media.  Scott Walker did the same thing a few days ago when he was ambushed by an illegal immigrant empathy play that he turned into a lesson on the rule of law.

Fox News: A stunning new poll shows trouble brewing for Hillary Clinton in key swing states, with the Democratic presidential front-runner trailing potential Republican rivals in every match-up tested. The Quinnipiac University poll put Clinton head-to-head against Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in three states: Colorado, Iowa and Virginia. In every hypothetical contest, the former secretary of state was either clearly trailing or, as Quinnipiac phrased it, "on the wrong side of a too-close-to-call" race. A majority of voters in all three states also said they found Clinton not honest and trustworthy. The gap between Clinton and GOP candidates was most pronounced in Colorado and Iowa. She trailed Rubio by 8 points in Colorado, 38-46 percent; and Walker by 9 points, 38-47 percent. She trailed Bush by 6 points in Iowa, 36-42 percent; and Rubio by 8 points, 36-44 percent. The survey raises troubling questions for...

DeRoy Murdock: Hillary Rodham Clinton shed her usual sunny demeanor on Monday and snarled at Republicans in general and one presidential candidate in particular. “Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers’ rights, and practically all Republican candidates would do the same as president,” Clinton growled at Manhattan’s New School. “I will fight back against these mean-spirited, misguided attacks. Evidence shows that the decline of unions may be responsible for a third of the increase of inequality among men. So, if we want to get serious about raising income, we have to get serious about supporting union workers.” Later that day, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka snapped, “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.” Liberals like Clinton and Trumka have it all wrong. Workers have been waxing, not waning, under Walker. And they can thank his free-market reforms for improving their lives. If there’s one thing workers value, it’s work. And on this score, W...

Washington Free Beacon: Scott Walker continues to lead the field of Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, according to a poll of likely Republican Iowa caucus participants released on Thursday. The poll, commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, also found a 5-point drop in support for Sen. Rand Paul compared to a similar survey by the Des Moines Register late last month. Walker received 19 percent in the poll, followed by Ben Carson at 13 percent and Jeb Bush at 11 percent. Marco Rubio received 9 percent, followed by Rick Perry at 7 percent, Ted Cruz at 6 percent and Rand Paul at 5 percent. ... Rand Paul was at one time a strong second in Iowa.  Perry had a good opening of his campaign in Iowa that is carrying over to this poll.  He also appears to be well placed to make the cut on the debates if the numbers are limited to the top ten poll results.

Hot Air: Hot Air Poll: For Third Month in a Row, Ted Cruz is the Frontrunner While this is a poll made up of those responding to an internet request, it does show that Perry is cutting into Scott Walker's total after a strong start to his campaign.

NY Times: Koch Brothers Signal Support for Walker in 2016 Race Charles G. and David H. Koch, the influential and big-spending conservative donors, have a favorite in the race for the Republican nomination: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. This will probably make it easier for him to stay in the race and compete with other candidates who have strong financial backing like Jeb Bush and recent Ted Cruz.  He still has to get the votes which gives the other candidates a chance.

Mike Huckabee: From Christian decapitations to radical Islamist victory marches, crisis and chaos is erupting across the world. The Obama Administration’s “crisis management” foreign policy has produced one thing: anarchy. In Syria, President Obama drew a “red-line.” President Bashar al-Assad responded by launching chemical attacks against women and children. In Egypt, our longtime ally, Obama’s team willingly accepted the disastrous power grab by the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead of congratulating General al-Sisi’s efforts to restore stability and confront radical Islam, Obama stays silent. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is filling the leadership vacuum in both countries. In Iraq, Obama promised stability and self-reliance. Today, ISIS radicals wave black flags in cities where American soldiers courageously and selflessly shed blood. Former ambassador to Iraq under Obama, James Jeffrey, described our botched strategy in Iraq as a “g–d— freefall.” Months ago, Obama highlighted Yemen as ...

Texas Tribune: Greg Abbott, Scott Walker to Tour Texas-Mexico Border Abbott is not choosing sides in the nomination process, but is keen to see whomever is nominated understands the dynamics of the border region and the impact of Obama's failure to enforce the law.

Washington Post: Republicans rally to Scott Walker’s call, believing he’s a scrappy survivor GOP activists gravitate toward the Wisconsin governor, saying he has “guts” and can win the White House. Walkers willingness to take on the liberals and labor and their over the top reaction to it has made him somewhat of a hero to conservatives.  While Ted Cruz has also stood up tot he liberals his campaign which is being announced today has not attracted the same broad support.  But Cruz will be a factor especially in states like Iowa where his willingness to stand up to all special interest will be on display.

Washington Examiner: Members of the media were quick to report that, included in Gov. Scott Walker's budget, was a removal of the requirements that colleges report campus sexual assault statistics to the state. The Daily Beast, Huffington Post and others all jumped on a report in Jezebel that tried to paint Walker as being unsympathetic to sexual assault victims. Daily Beast writer Brian Weidy went so far as to claim that Walker's proposal was "just short of explicitly violating Title IX regulations" and possible even "crossing a legal line." So not only is Walker a terrible person who hates victims, but he's also maybe breaking the law. Or so they said. But for all their eagerness to pile on a leading GOP candidate for president (note the contrast to reporting on Obama in 2008), they were just plain wrong. The outlets involved had to retract the story, although a simple Google News search could have spared them the humiliation. Walker had actua...

S.E. Cupps: As a member of the political press, I have to say, the media’s recent attempts at exposing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as an unsuitable presidential candidate have been nothing short of embarrassing. If you were dropped into America from Mars — nay, Canada! — you’d have the distinct impression that we only elected amateur psychologists, who were required to peer into the soul of some guy named Barack Obama, who is not running for President in 2016. Let’s stop the madness. Does Scott Walker believe that President Obama loves this country? Does he believe Obama is a Christian? To the first, which was asked because another person who is not running for President said he does not, Walker answered, “the mayor can speak for himself.” To the second he replied, “I don’t know,” which is apparently sacrilege, unless you are one of the many Democrats who have suggested outright that the President is not a Christian. Walker went on to rightly and articulately condemn this question as...

Washington Examiner: Walker pulls away from GOP field The media's attacks on Walker and their gotcha questioning  have resulted in increased support for Walker in the race for the nomination.  It shows just how out of touch the media is with GOP voters.  The more they obsess over Walker's refusal to condemn Giuliani the more support Walker gets.

NY Times: Critics in G.O.P. Say Chris Christie Is in a ‘Bubble’ Mary Schwalm/Associated Press Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at an event in New Hampshire on Feb. 16. Some former donors have pledged their support to other Republicans running for president. Conservative donors, including those who once encouraged Gov. Chris Christie to seek the White House, say the governor’s style has driven them to support others. Christie was not my first choice in the Republican race, but he has been subjected to unfair attacks by the media and others on the left to drive him out of race before it even gets started.   We are starting to see similar attacks against Scott Walker, some of which have backfired such as the Gail Collins column based on a factual error.  The left will do anything to drag down Republicans as shown by their criminalization of political differences with Rick Perry.  All of this seems aimed at avoiding a contest on the issues.

Heather Wilhelm: How Scott Walker Brings Out the Worst in the Left The left's latest gaffe was to send a mob out to yell at Walker's elderly parent's house. ... The protest, in other words, was the definition of bad optics. More importantly, it reflected the strange, resilient genius of Scott Walker. Somehow, wherever the Wisconsin governor goes, and whatever he does, he manages to bring out—and highlight—the worst of the political left. ... The left also looked pretty silly with its attempt to make evolution of all things an issue in a Presidential election.  Now if you believe in evolution I challenge you to name something a President can do to stop it.  In fact the only people attempting to stop evolution right now are on the left where environmentalist are pushing a radical reading of the Endangered Species Act.  It can also be argued that their policy for dealing with global warming is also anti Darwinism.

NY Times: Some See Wisconsin College Cuts as Ploys in 2016 Race Critics say Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is capitalizing on a view that is popular among conservatives like those in the Iowa caucuses: that state universities are elite bastions of liberalism. Spending on higher education has outpaced inflation for decades for no apparent reason other than the inability of administrators to restrain themselves.   They have turned into predatory lenders to unsophisticated borrowers, i.e. students, in order to allow many of them to live like the top one percent.  Maybe they are big spenders because they are liberals sopping up other people's money, but the need to cut funding and make them live within their means is not ideological. And what is with the cutesy sign?  Is it an attempt to remind people that Walker did not finish college?  Is this an appeal to academic snobbery?  Do Democrats really want to run on a campaign denigrating all those who d...

John McCormack: NYT Columnist Blames Scott Walker for Teacher Layoffs That Occurred Before He Was Governor Others in the mainstream media went on to repeat the error and gloat at Walker's predicament.  So far there has been a dearth of corrections.

Joe Cunningham: Scott Walker has come from out of nowhere (if you weren’t paying attention), survived three elections in four years as a Republican in a blue state, and is making waves with statements and policies that drive the Left insane. However, there is one thing that makes Walker different from other potential presidential candidates – he never finished college. And, the college life of a presidential candidate didn’t seem to concern the media in 2008 when no one decided to vet Obama’s collegiate career or figure out what the hell he might have done (aside from drugs!) in college. In 2016, it suddenly matters . Today, Walker, 47, is the governor of Wisconsin and a strong contender for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination. He is known for an astounding political hot streak: Since 1993, he has run 11 races for state legislature, county executive and governor — including a highly unusual recall election in 2012 — and he has won them all. But before that streak came a str...