CHICAGO- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker won in Tuesday’s recall election because of his clarity and decisiveness, and a series of speakers at CPAC Chicago including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told participants that Republicans need to follow his example to win.
Christie roused the crowd urging people in government to stand on principle rather than passing the buck, recounting the dire fiscal situation New Jersey faced when he came into office in 2010.
He succeeded in forcing the Democratic state legislature to bend to his will on restraining taxes and closing his state’s budget gap where it had defied his immediate Democratic predecessors.
“Leadership matters; standing for your principles matters,” Christie said. “The most important thing we have is that we’re right and they’re wrong.”
The governor echoed Walker’s strategy, saying people “need to understand with any more clarity the difference between conservative Republican principals and this president.”
Paul had struck a similar chord.
“Scott Walker stuck to principle, and that’s how he got elected,” Paul told Red Alert Politics.
Paul had words for Republican politicians who think that winning means going along to get along minus sticking to principles, noting that Walker proves that politicians can make the hard decisions and still get elected.
“When given the chance voters will vote for people who stand up for principle,” Paul said. “Now the media, they whine and they complain in the Capitol, ‘Why won’t you guys just compromise?’ ‘Why won’t you guys just hold hands and sing kumbayah?”
The Senator chided President Obama’s pretence for bipartisanship noting that he tried reaching across the aisle to work with him to solve the problems of Social Security, but he said the president said nothing.
