With Clinton and Obama Inbound, Scott Walker is on the Ropes in Wisconsin

According to Gallup, Tea Party Republicans are highly motivated to vote in the midterms, and they will have to be if Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is to save his job. Robert Costa of the Washington Post has been tweeting Walker’s woes. Wisconsin’s governor is clearly in trouble in what has always been a tight race:

And Walker knows it:

The Democrats are doing some heavy lifting in the state. President Bill Clinton will be in Milwaukee today in support of Democrat Mary Burke, and President Obama will be in Milwaukee next Tuesday to ad his influence to Burke’s campaign.

This is significant, because Milwaukee turnout has gone overwhelmingly Democrat in the last two elections (2010 and 2012), and as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel points out, “Democrats don’t win close elections in Wisconsin without running up the score in Milwaukee.”

The best Walker can do is trot out Chris Christie:

And maybe Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, with whom The Iowa Republican says Walker has “a close personal relationship,” and Rep. Paul Ryan, with whom Walker has what The Washington Post calls a “bromance”:

It might be noted here that Ryan is another one of those guys of whom it is said he can’t beat Hilary Clinton. As The Washington Examiner reported in April,

There will be no Republican favorite son in Wisconsin in 2016 if Democrat Hillary Clinton runs, because she would slay Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Paul Ryan, according to a new poll that bolsters growing calls for Clinton to get into the race.

It is clear who has the bigger guns in this particular race, and it isn’t the pro-gun party. The only thing Walker has going where Ryan is concerned is that – though it doesn’t say much for Walker’s presidential aspirations – Ryan is more popular in Wisconsin than Walker.

Christie, another guy who can’t beat Hilary – even in his home state of New Jersey – can’t say the same, being less popular in Wisconsin than the man he is supporting, and you have to wonder these days if having Christie in your corner is an advantage or a detriment.

Particularly since questions are flying about that Christie – who has been friends with Walker since 2010 – doesn’t have Walker’s back. From The Weekly Standard:

Is New Jersey governor and Republican Governors Association chairman Chris Christie undercutting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s reelection effort? That’s a question a number of influential Wisconsin Republicans have been asking behind the scenes over the past week after an October 16 Associated Press report indicated that Walker and his allies were being outspent by Democratic challenger Mary Burke and her allies.

Oh dear.

And Salon’s Luke Brinker pointed out just a few days ago that both Walker and Christie are flying against the will of the people in their opposition to a minimum wage hike. As Brinker wrote, “it’s exceedingly difficult for Republicans to discuss the issue without sounding both callous and clueless.” Is dumb and dumber really the way to go when things are already so close?

Now granted, we’re talking about Bill Clinton visiting Milwaukee, not Hilary. But keep in mind that Bill Clinton is the only politician that angry voters still love in 2014. Yes, the Tea Party is fired up, but if there is an antidote to the Tea Party, it is Bill Clinton, who has not only defended both Hilary and President Obama from their attacks, but repeatedly eviscerated their stupidity.

So yes, Scott Walker is in trouble in Wisconsin. He makes much of his rival, Mary Burke, being a “Madison Democrat” and regrets now not labeling her as such much sooner:

But Scott Walker’s got bigger problems than whether or not Burke is a Madison Republican, and that is that he is a Koch Republican in what has historically been a progressive state, and a member in good standing of the Religious Right at a time when the country is turning more socially liberal.

And then there’s Walker’s issues with integrity and the various scandals of his administration, which will loom large in the final days of the campaign. Scott Walker can’t win this election on his own merits, because he has none. But he can win it on voter suppression and Koch wealth. In other words, he can only win it by rejecting democracy itself.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.