"Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has expanded his early lead in Iowa..."

"...while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to face headwinds and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida shows upside potential in the state that hosts the first 2016 presidential nomination balloting...."

�Scott Walker�s momentum puts him solidly in first place,� said J. Ann Selzer, president of West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll. �For the time being, he�s doing the right things to make the right first impression.�

What Bernie Sanders wrote about rape fantasies in an alternative newspaper in 1972.

This is the feeblest controversy of all time, but it's worth noting that some people think it's worth noting and it probably needs to be said that if a GOP candidate had ever written anything like this, it would be considered significant:



I've read the whole thing, and it's mostly a call to all humanity to avoid "slavishness" and "pigness." Don't be oppressed and don't be the oppressor.

Many women seem to be walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency, subservience, and masochism.

There's a little blaming of the victim there, but it's an insight that was common in the feminism of the time. And he's endearingly sincere about bringing men and women together:

How do you love � without being dependent? How do you be gentle � without being subservient? How do you maintain a relationship without giving up your identity and without getting strung out? How do you reach out and give your heart to your lover, but maintain the soul which is you?

And Men. Men are in pain too. They are thinking, wondering. What is it they want from a woman? Are they at fault? Are they perpetrating this man-woman situation? Are they oppressors?

ADDED: I see hypocrisy at the Washington Examiner. On the one hand, there's "Bernie Sanders: Woman 'fantasizes being raped'":

Democratic presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders once penned an essay claiming that men fantasize about abusing women and women fantasize about being raped. Not exactly what you'd expect from the far left candidate whose campaign runs on the idea of equality for all Americans....

And on the other hand, there's "Scott Walker attacked over abortion quote that he didn't actually say":

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes forced ultrasounds are "just a cool thing for women," a handful of online news sites reported Wednesday. Problem is: That's not exactly what the Republican governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate said.

By the way, what Scott Walker did with his official power 2 years ago is a hell of lot more important than what Bernie Sanders said as a private citizen 43 years ago.

"The Old Scott Walker Ad Where He Played An Alter Ego With A Fake Mustache And Glasses."

"The ad, which plays on the famous 'I�m a Mac, I�m a PC' commercial, was run during Walker�s 2008 race for Milwaukee county executive...."

"The way to walk through demanding times is to grip my hand tightly. Regardless of the day�s problems, I can keep you in perfect peace as you stay close to me."

Said Jesus, as imagined by  Sarah Young in "Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence," as read aloud to a group of religious conservatives in Iowa, by presumed presidential candidate Scott Walker.

"Within minutes, Star Wars enthusiasts and Walker non-enthusiasts alike descended like locusts, parsing every syllable of what was clearly a joke..."

"Questions from these people flooded Twitter � who is 'that boy?' Who is 'another?' In the original quote, wasn't Yoda referring to Princess Leia? Or alternately, Anakin Skywalker? And what does a woman look like in person? It was just the latest example of a phenomenon that has gripped society in the Internet age. Once an oxymoron, social media has given rise to the 'nerd bully.'"

From "The nerd uprising is upon us," by Christian Schneider.

"Scott Walker's crisis of faith/The Wisconsin governor is racing to reassure Christian conservatives that he�s one of them."

Headline at Politico. Not much going on in the article in my view. I find this bloggable because 1. Politico is choosing this theme for its coverage (and not, say, the new John Doe documents that just came out) and 2. the absence of material is significant.

Walker tends not to talk about the social conservative issues � probably because 1. such issues are divisive and 2. he appears to be a very solidly religious man � and the social conservatives are having a meeting with him � where he'll probably explain those 2 things.

IN THE COMMENTS: I repeat my point that "Walker doesn't talk the SC issues. He is a conservative man. He comes across as sincerely religious, based on his whole life story and his behavior." I add: "That's his approach, and it's different from the approach of those who use the issues. I think it's an excellent and winning combination." And MaBee says: "Which is exactly why Politico wants to push him out of using it." Yes. And... how do we feel about a candidate winning that way? I guess it depends on whether in the end he does anything about these privately held values.

"Governors can certainly read about foreign policy, and take briefings and meet with experts, but there is no way they�ll be ready on Day One to manage U.S. foreign policy."

Said Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, attempting to distinguish himself from some of his rivals for the GOP nomination for President.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gives the response you'd have written for him if it was your job to write spiffy responses: "I think he�s questioning how Ronald Reagan was ready."

I got those quotes from a Fox6 article with a headline that I found odd: "Governor Scott Walker blames President Obama, Hillary Clinton for world violence." What is Fox6? I see the article is really by CNN. I read the article looking for material that justified that headline. I didn't find it.

"Who could have guessed in the mid-1980s, at a pair of otherwise forgettable McDonald�s restaurants some 20 miles apart, that two bushy-haired teenagers working the burger grills would become Wisconsin�s most powerful Republicans?"

The first sentence of a NYT article titled "Wisconsin, Politics and Faith Bind Scott Walker and Paul Ryan."

Last 2 paragraphs:

Rita Butke, who was Mr. Walker�s shift manager at the McDonald�s here in the 1980s, said she has enthusiastically supported both Mr. Walker and Mr. Ryan because of the values she associates with their low-wage, burger-flipping days.

�There�s a sense of responsibility and humility that you get from a job where you earned only $4.25 an hour,� said Ms. Butke, who is now manager at the Delavan store. �They both learned for themselves how much a dollar meant.�

"Star Wars fans angry about Scott Walker's Star Wars tweet."

Sigh.

Did these people not hear the warning I gave you 2 days ago: If you strike him down, he will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

"The latest attack on Walker is that he has 'up to' $50,000 in credit card debt to � wait for it � Sears."

"The Daily News does the hit on Walker, from the angle of it proving he�s not really a fiscal conservative.... Hello, it�s SEARS!... I don�t see how any of this hurts Walker."

Well, there's one thing that was proved a long time ago about Scott Walker: If you strike him down, he will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin, surrounded by people who � I think � are thinking How the hell did this happen? We crushed him with 100,000 protesters. We destroyed him....

Do not attempt to destroy The Walker. 

I don't know what that man bought at Sears, but maybe you should be shopping at Sears. Maybe something in the appliance department... maybe the tools... I don't know. Be careful, people.

"Scott Walker enters the Republican presidential race with far stronger ties to the party�s biggest fund-raisers than any other candidate besides Jeb Bush."

Derek Willis at the NYT analyzes Federal Election Commission records and state records:

Roughly half of the nation�s top 250 Republican donors have given money to Mr. Walker in his campaigns for Wisconsin governor.... By comparison, 30 percent have given to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, 20 percent to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and 10 percent to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey....

Mr. Walker�s previous support from Republican donors... can ease his path to raising money... Beyond money, the support from donors is a sign to other party leaders that he is a serious candidate....

Mr. Walker pulled in many of the top party donors during his 2012 recall contest, which attracted national attention....

"Ronald Rotunda, distinguished professor of jurisprudence at Chapman University in California, called Chisholm�s statements outrageous."

"There is no justification for a prosecutor to do this," Rotunda said. "If you were to write a recipe to chill your political opponents, this would be it. The only different between (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and this guy (Chisholm) is Putin charges his enemies with tax fraud and sends them to Siberia."

"Is Milwaukee County DA interested in pursuing criminal libel prosecutions of his political critics?"

Asks Eugene Volokh, noting that John Chisholm made a bit of a veiled threat toward Governor Scott Walker: "As to defamatory remarks, I strongly suspect the Iowa criminal code, like Wisconsin�s, has provisions for intentionally making false statements intended to harm the reputation of others." That came in response to Walker's saying that the John Doe investigation "was really about people trying to intimidate people," "They were looking for just about anything," and "it was largely a political witch hunt."

Volokh says that Iowa, in fact, does not have a criminal libel law, but Wisconsin does. Is Chisholm serious?

Is DA Chisholm is trying to signal that he may begin using Wisconsin�s own criminal libel law against political figures � or commentators or journalists � who he claims are lying about him (or other political figures)?

Volokh finds "the use of criminal libel law in political disputes... troubling." I'll say. I mean, that was Walker's point � government using its power to intimidate political opponents � and Chisholm's instinct was to threaten to use government power to intimidate political opponents. Of course, that's a despicable chilling of free speech. In fact, it's chilly enough around here that, on proofread, I wondered whether I ought to be writing "threat" and "threaten."

"Head Start for Jeb Bush Campaign Is Part of Scott Walker�s Plan."

NYT headline. Excerpt:

In emphasizing their long-range strategy, Mr. Walker�s advisers are seeking to lower expectations ahead of the first fund-raising totals for most candidates and their �super PACs,� which will be made public in mid-July. They also want to minimize expectations at this stage for Mr. Walker as a head-to-head competitor against Mr. Bush, who talks about policy with greater ease and confidence.

Advisers to Mr. Walker do not see any choice: Mr. Bush is raising money prodigiously, telling donors at a private gathering in Miami last weekend that his political organization was set to break political fund-raising records. Mr. Walker believes his best shot is to peak as a well-prepared, solidly financed candidate as Iowa, New Hampshire and other states start voting in February and March.

"We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker."

Said David Koch of the notorious Koch Brothers.

"In battle for authenticity, Scott Walker looks to Kohl's."

A CNN article about how Scott Walker has branded himself with a brand � the Wisconsin-based retailer Kohl's. CNN enumerates 4 reasons for Walker to use the Kohl's brand: 1. It signifies frugality, 2. He has a way to connect it to tax policy, 3. He can contrast himself to Hillary who probably shops at more expensive places, and 4. He can leverage easy jokes like saying "Is it from Kohl's?" when someone gives him something.

What I find weird is that CNN writes an entire article about how Walker has connected his name to Kohl's and seems to try to find everything possible to say about that but never got around to the fact that the name Kohl's has long been connected to a Democrat. Has everyone forgotten Herb Kohl already? It's his family's business and the source of all the money that allowed him to run as "Nobody's Senator But Yours":



Great slogan for a rich guy, no? It argued that he could care for us and connect with us precisely because he was wealthy, and he didn't need to get money from other people. And now, ironically, the always middle class Scott Walker is using Kohl's name to send the message that his lack of wealth connects him with us.

ADDED: WaPo has a similar article "Scott Walker stresses his discount attire and �regular guy� credentials," and it also misses the Herb Kohl connection.

"At Candidate Forum, Scott Walker Discusses Same-Sex Marriage of a Relative."

"Asked by a reporter if he would attend a gay wedding...."

�That�s certainly a personal issue,� Mr. Walker said at a brief news conference after addressing a gathering of New Hampshire Republicans here. Referring to his wife, he continued, �Tonette and I and our family already had a family member who�s had a reception. I haven�t been to a wedding. That�s true even though my position on marriage is still that�s defined between a man and a woman, and I support the Constitution of the state. But for someone I love, we�ve been at a reception.�...

Last June, a cousin of Mrs. Walker, Shelli Marquardt, was married to her partner at Waukesha County Courthouse outside Milwaukee, according to media reports. The Walkers� then-19-year-old son, Alex, served as a witness and signed his name to the marriage certificate....

ALSO: "Walker Shines in New Hampshire."

In Madison, Wisconsin, the Farmers Market returned to the Capitol Square today.

The farmers were there...



And the deep-fried cheese curds...



And the proponents of peace...



And the Walker-haters...

"These guys are ready to do whatever they can" to get Hillary!

Email, yesterday, from the Democratic Party. Guys are ganging up on Hillary. They'll do whatever they can, those meanies. I'm filing this under "gender politics," but it's rather weak gender politics, deniable gender politics.

It's not like it says "These guys are ready to do whatever they can to make sure that a woman isn't the 45th President"... but "These guys are ready to do whatever they can" is... well... for the sensitive... trigger-warning-worthy....



That reminds me... I just read the Playboy interview with Bill Maher, wherein he was asked "Who�s your money on for the White House race?" And he said:

I�d say Scott Walker will be the nominee for the Republicans. Jeb Bush is building momentum, but he�s attached at the hip to Common Core, which the Tea Party despises. True, he�s not the doofus his brother was, but in today�s Republican Party, that�s actually a huge minus. Then there�s Chris Christie. His numbers with Republican primary voters are horrible, close to Sarah Palin level, though if you like small government, he�s the guy for you, because soon half his administration will be in jail. But Walker? He�s a folk hero with the people from the Tea lagoon and with the establishment wing. His father was an evangelical preacher�a huge plus with the snake handlers and flat-Earthers who make up the base. And he won three times, including a recall, in a blue state, and he faced down public unions. The one problem is he didn�t graduate from college�oh wait, that�s a plus too, because book learnin� is, you know, suspicious.

"The state capitol reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has tracked Wisconsin political drama locally for a decade."

"But with Governor Scott Walker instituting sweeping policies and then navigating a presumed presidential campaign, [Jason] Stein has found that he is no longer just elbowing in-state competitors for scoops." A piece in the Columbia Journalism Review.

The incursion of national media doesn�t negate institutional knowledge local outlets have spent decades building, but it is forcing them to make clever use of minimal resources, as each makes its bid to be a national leader in Scott Walker coverage while still keeping up with the state�s everyday political news....

There have only been three serious presidential candidates from Wisconsin since 1924, so even veteran reporters in the state are on new ground....