A few thoughts on the implications, with more reflections in a broader perspective in a later Washington Examiner column.
Homework counts. As my colleague Byron York points out, Walker did make some effort to get tutoring on foreign policy issues after he zoomed to the top of Iowa, New Hampshire and national polls after a speech in Des Moines Jan. 24. But he was unable to show mastery of national and foreign policy in interviews and debates. He did not develop succinct, strong, supported answers as Carly Fiorina has done. In Wisconsin, as Walker pointed out in his book Unintimidated, co-authored by my American Enterprise colleague Marc Thiessen, Walker learned as he went, developing his proposal to limit public employee unions’ bargaining powers only after taking office and preparing his first budget proposal. Presidents also learn as they go, inevitably, but it’s helpful to let voters know your plans before you enter office.
It’s hard to translate success on state issues into national terms. Walker’s success in limiting Wisconsin public employee unions turned out to have little relevance to national issues. Federal public employee unions have nothing like the power that those in many states do — Democratic as well as Republican presidents and Congresses have made sure they don’t. And private sector unions, regulated by the federal government, have nothing like the power of some public sector unions; Walker’s recent proposal to limit private sector unions didn’t strike a chord with anyone.
An ordinary guy persona only goes so far. Earlier this cycle Republican voters seemed to like the fact that Walker clips coupons and shops at Kohl’s. He’s a regular guy who understands how ordinary people live. Even his home suburb of Wauwatosa is typical: in 2012 it voted 50 to 49 percent for President Obama, very close to the national average. But this ordinariness didn’t turn out to (pardon the verb) trump other things. Poll leader Donald Trump boasts he’s a billionaire, poll runner-up Carly Fiorina has revealed her net worth as $59 million and Ben Carson, after years as a famed surgeon, has surely accumulated seven-figure wealth.
Sense of command. It’s something voters want in a candidate for a position whose titles include commander in chief. Walker may have shown something like that in Des Moines in January. He didn’t on the campaign trail or in the debates in Cleveland and Simi Valley.
