It’s easy to say Scott Walker dropped out of the Republican presidential race because he ran out of money. But he ran out of money because of his own limitations as a candidate — limitations that have been in plain sight for quite a while.

Walker surprised the political world in late January when he delivered a wow-’em speech at an Iowa Republican gathering. The GOP activists there already respected Walker for his record as governor of Wisconsin, but most expected a lackluster, even boring presentation from a man who had not, up to that point, set the campaign trail on fire.