Among the Walker campaign's extravagances: a full-time traveling photographer. http://t.co/xlmQWFIiBw
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) September 22, 2015
To throw himself in front of anyone going in for the bald shot. https://t.co/4SeRYtUPBY
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 22, 2015
There is so much schadenfreude to be savored! Here’s Politico, being all earnest’n’insider-y (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/scott-walker-quits-2016-213912):
It’s almost always bad news when a candidate’s spouse calls an emergency meeting.
But that’s what happened late last week when Scott Walker’s wife, Tonette, and his campaign chairman, Mike Grebe, reached out to a small number of longtime Walker aides and summoned them to the governor’s mansion on Monday morning…
Walker had just limped out of a disappointing second presidential debate. The governor had spent weeks preparing for the showdown, knowing his political life depended on it. He’d practiced giving punchier answers and making sure to use up all his allotted time.
But the reviews had been brutal. Donors were grousing, and money was drying up. It was a painful turn for Walker, who had quickly vaulted to the top of the Iowa polls, powered by a fiery January speech in Des Moines, only to drop precipitously in the summer amid Donald Trump’s rise. He had gone from front-runner to also-ran in a matter of months…
Shortly after the meeting wrapped, Walker arrived at his decision: He was out. It was a shocking and sudden move that blindsided many of Walker’s closest allies, threw the power of super PACs into doubt and opened opportunities for rivals to pick up patrons, staff, and supporters…
Seems obvious Walker's whole "clear the field to save the party" thing was tacked on *after* he decided he stood no chance of winning.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) September 22, 2015
Mr. Pierce, at Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38122/scott-walker-implosion-chaos-theory/):
Nothing became Scott Walker’s campaign like his leaving of it (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/21/scott-walker-suspends-presidential-campaign/). This is what he would have you believe. That he was “called” to drop out – by the Deity or by his various sugar daddies, or both – so that real conservatives could coalesce behind one candidate in opposition to the barbarian at the gates. In doing so, Mr. Big, Bold, and Unintimidated delivered his remarks and then scarpered, taking no questions about how he managed to squander money and time on a campaign that didn’t last as long as the one currently promoting George Pataki. This was death by asterisk…
Once again, I admit that I was one of the people who overrated the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. I thought he, or the people around him, would be smart enough to let his union-bashing, duplicitous resume do the talking up until the actual primary balloting began. As we have now seen, this was somewhat optimistic. Confronted by opponents he could neither arrest nor hide from, Walker found that facing down Donald Trump was harder than rounding up singing Grandmas…
The fact is that the Republican party’s primary process is now an exercise in chaos theory. Things happen that are not obviously connected to one another. There is nobody controlling the process, so the process itself is running amuck. Scott Walker failed as a candidate only partly because he is Scott Walker. He also failed as a candidate because his party is failing as a party. He was one of a baker’s dozen of independent entities, all orbiting independently, and all subject to unpredictable gravimetric forces of which Trump is only one. Sooner or later, there is a collision. Scott Walker is the rubble that remains after one of those, endlessly spinning around a dying sun.
And Walker had so much to offer as a candidate…
Walker just looked lost on national issues.
— Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) September 21, 2015
Also, international issues. Other than that he was good. RT @michaelbd Walker just looked lost on national issues.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) September 21, 2015
At Buzzfeed, even the Insiders’ Insiders are shocked (http://www.buzzfeed.com/kyleblaine/scott-walker-is-dropping-out-of-republican-primary-race#.myp3W17dJ):
Even late last week, Walker wasn’t showing outward signs of planning to drop out.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who hosted Walker at a breakfast at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday, the day after last week’s debate in California, said in an email that it was a “total shock” to him that Walker was exiting the race. He said there was no indication that anything was amiss at the breakfast and Walker didn’t hint at the looming campaign suspension…
Luntz said he predicted that many of Walker’s donors would migrate to Marco Rubio, because “a lot of Walker supporters had Rubio as their second choice, and a lot of Rubio supporters had Walker as their second choice.”
But “nothing happens for a while because you have to go through a grieving period,” he said.
Grieving the lost paychecks, I guess.
It's actually astonishing how much money Walker's campaign burned through in 70 days. https://t.co/pz1zejL2ao
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) September 21, 2015
Who was the last presidential candidate to drop out without filing a single FEC report?
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) September 21, 2015
From the Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/articles/scott-walker-to-drop-out-of-presidential-race-1442868289):
… There were plenty of factors in Mr. Walker’s downfall. He gave a series of unsteady answers on the question of whether he supported a pathway to legal status for immigrants in the country illegally. He also inserted himself awkwardly into the policy debate over China, refused to take a position on evolution and compared his efforts to fight unions to battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
But his biggest problem appeared to be fundraising. Many of his top donors expressed concern in recent weeks that, as the result of those stumbles, he wouldn’t raise enough money to maintain a large campaign staff…
Top donors had been raising concerns for weeks about the size of his staff, and some were quietly prodding the governor to replace his campaign manager, Rick Wiley. Mr. Wiley was in Washington when Mr. Walker made his announcement in Madison, Wis. Mr. Walker employed dozens of aides at the Madison headquarters, as well as in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. His staff even included a full-time traveling photographer, a luxury not even well-financed candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush employed.
Mr. Walker leaves the field even though two super PACs who supported his candidacy had plenty of money and had reserved as much as $16 million in television ad time in three states. The lion’s share was expected to be spent in Iowa and South Carolina.
Unintimidated and Our American Revival, the two committees, raised $26 million in the first six months of the year, according to their July disclosure reports. Some $10 million came from two families—roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, who gave the Unintimidated super PAC, $5 million, and TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and his wife, Marlene, who contributed $5 million.
Super PACs can accept donations without contribution caps, and they are prohibited from coordinating with the candidates’ campaign, which must comply with a federal donation limit of $2,700 per person for the primary. Because Mr. Walker didn’t officially enter the race until July 13, his campaign has yet to disclose how much it raised to finance its staff and perform other core duties…
Hmmmm….
Walker donor says Karl Rove told him in March: "Tell Walker to watch his pennies, I've heard Wiley likes to spend money."
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) September 22, 2015
Honest question: who do you think Walker wants to drop out of the race as well?
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) September 21, 2015
With Scott Walker out of the race, how will we get that wall that he promised built on the Canadian border?! Who will now stop this menace?!
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) September 22, 2015
Maybe Walker really quit because that Koch impersonator DJ called him and told him to.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 22, 2015
Candidates smart R political types tell me would be helped by Walker exit: Kasich, Rubio, Cruz, Jeb, Huckabee. In other words, no one knows.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 22, 2015