The Weekly Standard explains the terrible scandal – he got a job offer in his fourth year of college, and he took it.
Excerpt:
As Scott Walker surges in the 2016 GOP primary polls, Democrats and the mainstream media have taken a newfound interest in the well-known fact that the Wisconsin governor never received a college degree.
[…]Walker’s story about his departure from college has always been straightforward: He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee from 1986 to 1990, but in the spring of his fourth year he left Marquette “in good standing” in order to take a full-time job at the American Red Cross. He intended to finish, but couldn’t find the time.
[…]When he arrived at college, Walker threw himself into student government and campus politics, but was uninterested in class. The Post reports:
Even in politics class, Walker could appear disengaged.
“He seemed utterly bored,” said Michael Fleet, who taught him in a class on the politics of the Third World. Fleet said he’d hoped to get Walker into debates with the liberals in the room. But it didn’t work. Walker would only give occasional short speeches that made conservative arguments.
So Walker abandoned the pursuit of a political science degree not only to take a full-time job at the American Red Cross but also to launch his political career. In the fall of 1990, Walker ran his first campaign for the Wisconsin legislature. He knocked on 13,000 doors only to lose badly, but his longshot campaign set him up for a winning campaign in another legislative district in 1993. In 2002, he was elected (and re-elected twice) as county executive in overwhelmingly Democratic Milwaukee county and went on to win three gubernatorial elections between 2010 and 2014.
Look, I studied computer science, and I thought that was interesting, but if I were studying political science, I would quit it too – if someone offered me a job. Non-STEM programs are a waste of time and money, compared to a real job. The job experience is worth more. And if he left to work, then he could start running for office as soon as he stopped studying full-time. I think people on the left forget how much college costs compared to a job. If you are paying $15K a year for college, then making $45K instead is quite a swing in a positive direction.
I think people in the media are starting to go after Scott Walker, now, so everything gets put under a microscope.
The Weekly Standard also wrote about a New York Times hit piece on Walker that actually lied about his record.
Take a look:
New York Times columnist Gail Collins writes about Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s recent speech in Iowa:
Mainly, though, The Speech was about waging war on public employee unions, particularly the ones for teachers. “In 2010, there was a young woman named Megan Sampson who was honored as the outstanding teacher of the year in my state. And not long after she got that distinction, she was laid off by her school district,” said Walker, lacing into teacher contracts that require layoffs be done by seniority.
All of that came as a distinct surprise to Claudia Felske, a member of the faculty at East Troy High School who actually was named a Wisconsin Teacher of the Year in 2010. In a phone interview, Felske said she still remembers when she got the news at a “surprise pep assembly at my school.” As well as the fact that those layoffs happened because Walker cut state aid to education [emphasis added].
Only one problem with that:
[T]he big error in Collins’s piece is her claim that “those layoffs happened because Walker cut state aid to education.” As you can see in the excerpt above, Collins is talking about teacher layoffs that occurred in 2010. Walker did not become governor until 2011.
The truth is that Walker’s reforms actually saved teachers’ jobs. Right before the 2012 Wisconsin recall election, Walker’s Democratic opponent Tom Barrett couldn’t name a single school that had been hurt by Walker’s policies. When Walker’s 2014 Democratic opponent Mary Burke was asked to name any schools hurt by Walker’s collective bargaining reform, she relayed an anecdote she’d heard secondhand about one school. Burke’s story didn’t check out, and the superintendent of that school wrote a letter telling Burke she didn’t know what she was talking about.
The New York Times updated their article after two days, with a correction that didn’t go far enough, in my opinion.
Meanwhile, the knock on Walker is that he is not able to raise as much money as the RINO candidates.
The Wall Street Journal says boo to that:
Several GOP fundraisers from the financial-services industry and other Manhattan business sectors are hosting donor events for Mr. Walker, a likely presidential candidate, when he visits New York next week. The events show that while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have strong support in New York money circles, neither has a lock on the city’s big-dollar donors.” The report continues, “Several fundraisers who backed GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 are now helping Mr. Walker, who is best known for challenging Wisconsin public-sector unions and winning three statewide elections in a presidential swing state.”
How is Walker doing in the polls? The International Business Times reports on a new Fox News poll:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is at the head of the class among possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates, according to a new Fox News poll. In a survey that asked respondents to assign letter grades to 10 Republicans who may mount a campaign, Walker received an average grade of “B.” Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both received “B-” averages.
[…]Besides leading the Republican field in average grade, Walker also received the highest share of “A” grades among Republican voters at 18 percent. He was followed by Carson at 15 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 12 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich got the lowest percentage of “A” grades among the 10 possible GOP candidates at 5 percent, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got the highest percentage of “F” grades at 13 percent.
[…]The Fox News poll of 1,044 registered voters was conducted between Feb. 8 and Feb. 10. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
If you want to hear a great introductory podcast on Scott Walker, I recommend listening to this 10-minute podcast on Scott Walker from the Weekly Standard. Get to know your Republican candidates now, don’t wait for the mainstream media to pick another Romney for you.
If you want to learn more about Scott Walker, I recommend Walker’s new book. I actually got the audio version, and it’s read by Governor Walker himself.
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WINTERY KNIGHT 