Alas, poor Gov. Scott Walker is not only bearing the burden of running for the presidency but is forced to carry an extra load in that he has my personal endorsement! Thus, we must give him a little leeway if, as Jonathan S. Tobin reports at the Commentary site, he has begun to wobble a bit. He is running on a Reaganite, small government, low tax platform but, alas, before an audience in Iowa (where the corn is nearly as high as an elephant's eye!) he suddenly switched his position on government subsidies for ethanol production and promised his support for it if he reaches the White House. As Tobin puts it:
Walker isn’t the first candidate to discover a new love for corn-base fuels while trolling for votes in Iowa. But that was an embarrassing departure for a man who built a reputation as someone who is willing to stand up to mobs and thugs in order to stick to principled positions.
Of more importance, outside of Iowa, anyway, is that he appears to be wobbling on how to deal with illegal immigrants. Hitherto he has opposed schemes to allow such immigrants to be amnestied and given means to earn citizenship but now he seems to have changed his mind.
Well, perhaps it is just a case of a 'newbie' from the back hills of Wisconsin finding out what it's like to be centre stage nationally but he had better hurry up and learn the ropes - or he'll find himself hanging off them!
"He is running on a Reaganite, small government, low tax platform but, alas, before an audience in Iowa ... he suddenly switched his position on government subsidies ..."
Not to worry David! That is if (and I'd guess Iowa, when it comes to subsidies, isn't so unlike Arkansas legislators) candidates say one thing on one end of being elected - and doing the exact polar opposite after.
Recall, Arkansas' legislature (and governorship) back in November flipped to Republican majorities for the first time since 1880. The Republican Candidates promising, No More Pork!
But then, pork is just as popular I suppose, as it is in Iowa.
http://americansforprosperity.org/arkansas/article/americans-for-prosperity-arkansas-taxpayers-deserve-better-than-40-million-spent-on-earmarks/
Posted by: JK | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 19:15
And ... while I'm on a roll with candidates saying one thing "pre" and doing the polar opposite "post."
You recall David me sending you that link to ballot propositions Arkies had to consider last November, the one particularly addressing Ethics Reform?
http://ballotpedia.org/Arkansas_Elected_Officials_Ethics,_Transparency_and_Financial_Reform_Amendment,_Issue_3_(2014)
At the time All - each and everyone of the Republican candidates swore ... some even going so far as raising their right hands swearing ... "We, even if the issue passes will not 'allow the supposedly vague language' and do what the Democrats would, if elected, most certainly do!"
____________
True to form - anytime a candidate talks about Ethics - Hide the spoons!
March 16th 2015
"Since the approval of new pay for official was voted, public comment has been taken. It has run heavily against the size of the pay raises — 150 percent for legislators, for example. ... The increases will cost the state $4.9 million in pay increases and matching payments (for retirement, for example) this year and $7.7 million fiscal 2017, when 16 more district judges will be added to the state pay plan. An item not widely remarked is the big jump in matching costs — more than $500,000 in the House, $180,000 in the Senate, $50,000 for constitutional officers, and $700,000 for judges in the first year."
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/03/16/todays-the-day-legislators-get-their-pay-raise
Posted by: JK | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 19:47
JK. I would not be concerned about promises made. MR Blair promised as did Mr Cameron about immigration and welfare payments and the immigrants flowed in. They either got their sums wrong or lied. Make up your own mind.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 21:44
You can either run a "principled" campaign or run to win.
Posted by: Whitewall | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 22:22
Of course not Jimmy. By the bye, I watched y'alls Cameron (David's Davie Dearest) and Milliband last night on our C-Span. Previous to those interviews I'd considered only "our politicians" could stutter so. Milliband was especially *funny* as the interviewer complained he wasn't "answering the questions as posed rather, he was posing his own questions then, wriggling out of even answering those."
Accurate enough Whitewall. "Telling the truth" elects no one.
Still ... I'd preferred (at least our'en in Arkansas) not given truth to the lies within a mere ten days past the swearing in ceremony. Ah well, hopefully it's forgot before the next campaigns start up - 'bout ten days hence I'm reckoning.
Posted by: JK | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 22:58
Jk. The problem with interviews nowadays is the interviewer like Paxman is a prima dona and interupts before the question can be answered therefore the public have to form an opinion on unaswered questions. The fact is that most people were commenting on how well Paxman did. This is not a Kennedy Nixon scenario but just British and not all that important.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Monday, 30 March 2015 at 23:30
My boy Ted went to Iowa and told them he favored ending ethanol subsidies. For such reckless honesty, he got a standing ovation. That is just one reason why he is MY boy Ted.
Posted by: Michael Adams | Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 04:11
Now that Cruz feller I'm generally of the opinion, getting a standing ovation saying "the polar opposite" of what should've been the expected - candidate's position - hews more to my expectations and, as Whitewall above (maybe) "principled stand."
Cruz 2016!
(If we'd have more of the principled same why not - McConnell 2016!)
Posted by: JK | Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 05:58
I'm curious about Mr. Cruz who seems to have erupted from nowhere. I must do my homework.
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 09:06
Texas is not Utopia, i.e."Nowhere". Ted was our Solicitor General, was, before that, one of the lawyers who argued Bush v. Gore in 2000. Conservatives in Austin and Houston know him quite well. The notable thing about conversations with him is that he looks directly at you, not over your shoulder to see whether someone more important will show up. He is surely a lawyer's lawyer, and no less a personage than Alan Dershowitz has said he was the most brilliant debater Prof. D. had ever seen.
That the lefties are starting a keening frenzy is evidence enough that they fear him. Although lawyers, and even human beans, outside of New York and New England, are less moisten-their-panties impressed by Harvard Law, no one really believes that an idiot could emerge from that place. Nevertheless, the Cruz-is-stupid meme is being floated, rather like the Palin-is-stupid one from seven years ago. He possesses not only intelligence, but also guile, not always the same thing. He made his announcement speech with neither notes nor TelEPrompter. His guile will preclude his entrapment in one of the media's 'gotcha' schemes, as happened to Palin.He has quite a bit of attraction for Libertarians, even though he is anti abortion, and always has been.
I told him seven years ago that, if he could avoid being caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman or a chicken of either persuasion, and if we still had a country, we'd make him President. That rumble you hear is the sound of millions of marching feet. Oh, yes, we damned sure can!
Posted by: Michael Adams | Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 14:49
I got an email from Cruz today! Whitewall are the Kennedy's finished now or are they just subsidising a protege.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 22:12
jimmy, congrats! The Kennedys are pretty much a thing of the past thank goodness. I don't sense Cruz is a protégé. Wait until you get a solicitation for funds.
Posted by: Whitewall | Wednesday, 01 April 2015 at 00:47