"Best in Show" (Scott Walker)

[applegrove]

Best in Show

Wisconsin’s Scott Walker outshines the competition in Iowa

By John Dickerson at Slate

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/scott_walker_performs_well_at_iowa_freedom_summit_the_wisconsin_governor.html

"SNIP................



Before the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday, one Republican activist summed up Gov. Scott Walker’s challenge this way: “He doesn’t make the flashbulbs go off.” But at the end of the marathon day of speeches before conservatives, the Wisconsin governor emerged as the leading light.


There were plenty of well-received speeches during the day from Sen. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, but it was their home turf. The Freedom Summit, put on by Rep. Steve King and Citizens United, was a gathering of the base of the Republican base. But it was a bit of a SkyMall event—while there were lots of offerings it wasn’t clear if there was a place for the most exotic ones. Donald Trump, for example, may say he’s considering running for president, but it’s as hard to believe that he will be president as it is to understand the need for an Eye of the Dragon Mystical Safe Box.


Walker did the most to help himself politically, elevating his stature as a candidate who might achieve the elusive synthesis of pleasing the party base while also attracting a general election audience.

“Wow he’s good,” said Jane Hodoly, as Walker spoke. Later, in an interview, the Tea Party member from Ottumwa, Iowa said, “We need a warrior in the presidential office.” Walker, who retold the story of his battle with the unions (along with the death threats he faced) and what it took to win three elections in four years (including becoming the first governor to survive a recall) appealed to this desire. “If you are not afraid to go big and bold, you can actually get results," Walker told the audience. Pat Scanlon, another Tea Party member, from Oskaloosa, Iowa said: “I wish he were our governor.”

Walker took the stage with a handheld microphone and walked across it as he spoke—making sure the audience got the point by saying he was causing trouble for the photographers trying to keep up with him. Stagecraft matters because while conservative hero Ronald Reagan perfected the use of the teleprompter, that speech aide is now seen as villainous because Obama relies on it so heavily. (The theory is that his trickery is laid bare when he has to speak extemporaneously.) Trump, whose role is to represent the id of a certain kind of anti-Obama voter, received big applause when he suggested that the teleprompter be banned.



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[House of Roberts]

1. Westminster Kennel Club this warn't.

You're damning ol' Scotty by faint praise, fair Dickerson.