I could laugh for several days on end at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the ridiculous press appearance he made to announce that he is suspending his campaign. But I don’t really care about Walker anymore than I care about the asshole governors of Florida or Maine, just to pick two extreme examples.
What was kind of threatening about Walker was that he seemed to have some potential to use the fact that he doesn’t come from a dysfunctional state (like Maine or Florida), but from a bona fide bluish swing state, and the fact that he’s a two-term governor with actual executive experience, to argue persuasively that he was some kind of moderate bridge-building guy.
On paper, at least, he could check the boxes of an establishment candidate with real crossover appeal, and yet at the same time he could be a hero to the hard right.
I always saw this threat as mainly theoretical and I always believed that the governors of Ohio and Michigan had better cases to make about potential crossover appeal.
Walker doesn’t really have any non-establishment support to speak of, so it’s silly to talk about where his voters will go. The mega-donors who were supporting him and the talent he had assembled within his campaign will go somewhere, though, and I suspect that they’ll split between Kasich and Rubio, with some looking for a role with Fiorina or even Bush.
Mainly, I see this as chance for Kasich to solidify himself as the backup to Bush and for Rubio to move up a little in the pack.
I don’t see Walker suspending his campaign as having fuck-all for prospects of derailing Trump, despite Walker’s expressed wishes that bowing out would have that effect.
I also doubt it will lead others to quickly follow his lead. If this is a game of survivor, every one who didn’t just quit just saw their odds go up a little. If I had to say that anybody might be hurt by this in the short term it would only be the person who desperately needs one, but doesn’t get any bump out of it. It might hasten the day when it’s obvious that Chris Christie isn’t catching on, for example.
I guess Lindsey Graham is the most likely to follow Walker’s advice that people drop out and let some anti-Trump feeling solidify. Santorum, Huckabee, Pataki, Jindal, etc., all just saw an opening at the adult table open up.
They’ll be sticking it out for a while.
