Monday, February 23, 2015

Scott Walker is officially the GOP frontrunner, and the media is out for blood

How do you know that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has taken at least temporary custody of frontrunner status in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016? Beyond, of course, the polls that show him rocketing to the front of the pack in critical early primary states like Iowa? The political press is coming down hard on him and his nascent campaign. - HOTAIR

...After three unambiguous statewide victories in a Democratic state in just four years, Scott Walker is thoroughly vetted. If there were skeletons in his closet, the media and the myriad opposition researchers scrutinizing his past would have found them by now. “Scott Walker could very well be indicted in the coming days,” the forlorn MSNBC host Ed Schultz predicted on the night of Walker’s second statewide victory. He never was.

So, the press has taken a keen interest in catching Walker in unflattering moments or making hash out of otherwise minor controversies. Rudy Giuliani was speaking at an event for Walker when he sent the political media into a manic frenzy in which reporter and pundit alike tripped over one another to denounce what they dubbed the New York City’ mayor’s callous and quite possibly racist assertion that President Barack Obama doesn’t love his country. Only now, on day five of that story, is it finally beginning to fade from the media’s focus.

When Walker refused to denounce the former Big Apple mayor to the media’s satisfaction, they pounced. “What Scott Walker did ought to disqualify him as a serious presidential contender,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank hyperventilated. “Clownish,” insisted Rachel Maddow Show producer Steve Benen. “Spineless,” The Washington Post editorial board averred.

And all this merely because the Badger State governor said “the mayor can speak for himself” despite conceding that his comments were “aggressive.” The press would not have been satisfied unless Walker had thrown himself upon a pyre in penitence for the sin of having attended an event at which the president’s values were questioned and his honor attacked. It was bizarre to see the political press respond to Giuliani’s remarks as though they had been personally insulted. KEEP READING

Rush Limbaugh: Scott Walker Is GOP's 'Blueprint' for 2016 Win - NEWSMAX

Relax, everyone: Scott Walker is right to ignore trap questions from idiot media - Dan Calabrese/Herman Cain

I can tell you all about the trap questions the media use to trip up conservative candidates. Scott Walker is playing this exactly right. Don't panic because they're beating him up. They were going to do that no matter what....

Walker recognizes that the political media are basically a bunch of blithering fools who aren't prepared to talk about any of this, and prefer instead to shout questions at him about irrelevant nonsense. And he's not taking the bait. You can look at his governing record in Wisconsin, and you can assess the policy proposals he'll offer during the course of this campaign assuming he does in fact run. But you can't get him to talk about trivia the media throw out there as traps. If they want to scream because he's not going there, let them scream.

The media will beat up Scott Walker no matter what he does. He can't prevent that from happening, but he can prevent them from doing it on their terms - which is what he would be allowing if he answered all their stupid questions.

And if you're a conservative who is upset because Walker won't "take a stand" on evolution of whatever else, relax. He's taken a stand on something far more important here, and he's refusing to play the game of people whose only agenda is the election of Hillary Clinton. If you can't understand why that's smart, then you need to brush up on what the president of the United States actually does.