I wrote about Scott Walker this morning for Salon, pointing out that despite his strong reputation with the religious right, they are not sold on him one bit:
But considering his reputation as a hardcore social conservative, this particular flip-flop came as a huge disappointment to his base during the 2014 gubernatorial race:
He signed legislation defunding Planned Parenthood in the Badger State and requiring that women seeking abortions get ultrasounds first but then ran an ad in his 2012 gubernatorial reelection bid saying he backed legislation that “leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.
That wasn’t the only “family values” issue on which Walker seemed wobbly. He was quoted being blithely dismissive of the Wisconsin Court’s ruling overturning the state’s ban on same sex marriage when he said “it doesn’t really matter what I think now … I don’t comment on everything out there.” He even defended the state’s law prohibiting employer discrimination against LGBT people, which really sent the base around the bend.
As a contender for the Republican nomination for president, he desperately needs to shore up that religious-right base. They were apparently upset enough with his flip-flopping on these issues of deep principle that he felt the need to have a meeting with social conservative leaders in Washington not too long ago to reassure them of his fealty to their cause. And he made quite an impression: Explaining that he had signed a bill which required women seeking abortions to submit to ultrasounds, and required doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, Walker now claims that saying he supports leaving “the final decision to a woman and her doctor” was actually a clever bit of rhetorical jiu-jitsu that co-opts the pro-choice language. And for some reason they bought it.
One of the attendees, Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, was very impressed by this cunning plan, saying, “to the extent that we use the other side’s rhetoric to undermine their positions, we’re better off.”
Whatever. She came away from that meeting feeling soothed by Walker’s gibberish but most of the others are still holding out. This is important for him. One of his selling points has been his social conservative cred, which was supposed to line up this faction from the beginning and allow him some room on the other fronts. And he may still be able to do that. The problem is that the social cons are feeling burned by gay marriage and are paranoid about losing their clout so they may feel it’s in their best interest to play hard to get or to go another way. Its not like their aren’t a bunch of strong social conservatives in the race. In fact, which one’s aren’t strong social conservatives?
As I’ve been saying, Walker is a highly overrated politician. It’s still possible that he could learn quickly and that the Koch money could come in and put him over the top. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kochs really are taking a second look at the field. Walker’s just not that good.