Obligatory: Scott Walker Quits 2016 Presidential Race (VIDEO)

Well, he's dropped like a brick since the first debate, and campaign funding has dried up faster than the California drought.

Everybody's talking about it, at Memeorandum, "Scott Walker Quits 2016 Presidential Field."

And watch, via Fox News:

Changes to Republican Party Primary Rules May Backfire

Seems to me this isn't a new problem. The GOP doesn't want a conservative. Party leaders wanted a streamlined caucus and primary schedule to quickly produce a nominee (a centrist nominee), as they always do. And of course Donald Trump's throwing a monkey wrench into the process.

See, "Party Rules to Streamline Race May Backfire for G.O.P.":

In the starkest sign of how unsettled the situation is, what once seemed unthinkable — that Mr. Trump could win the Republican nomination — is being treated by many within the Republican establishment as a serious possibility. And one reason his candidacy seems strong is a change by the party in hopes of ending the process earlier: making it possible for states to hold contests in which the winner receives all the delegates, rather than a share based on the vote, starting March 15, two weeks earlier than in the last cycle. Ten states have said they will do so.

If Mr. Trump draws one-third of the Republican primary vote, as recent polls suggest he will, that could be enough to win in a crowded field. After March 15, he could begin amassing all the delegates in a given state even if he carried it with only a third of the vote. And the later it gets, the harder it becomes for a lead in delegates to be overcome, with fewer state contests remaining in which trailing candidates can attempt comebacks.

“Somebody like Trump, who is operating in a crowded field, could put this contest away early if the crowd doesn’t thin out,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, who was a senior adviser to Mr. Romney...

Keep reading.

Madeleine Behr, USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign, Signed Recall Petition in 2011

Democrat Party activists with bylines.

From Kimberlee Kaye, at Legal Insurrection, "USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign Signed Recall Petition."

Scott Walker at Iowa State Fair: 'I am not intimidated...' (VIDEO)

Here's the headline at Politico, via Memeorandum, "Scott Walker tries to make hay out of heckling incident."

Watch, "Scott Walker to Protester: 'I Am Not Intimidated'."

Also at Legal Insurrection. "Scott Walker Confronts Union Protesters at Iowa State Fair."

Scott Walker Launches Presidential Campaign 2016 (VIDEO)

This guy is a serious mainstream conservative candidate with a record.

It's going to be interesting to see how his bid plays out. Carl Cameron on Fox News earlier said the Walker was tops in the polls, right behind Jeb Bush. He omitted mention of Donald Trump, for reasons I'm not exactly sure except to discount the real estate tycoon as a fly-by-night longshot. He's no longshot at the moment, and Walker will have to debate him at one of these upcoming conservative conclaves.

In any case, at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Scott Walker makes it official, will kick off 2016 campaign in Waukesha."

And at National Journal, "Can Scott Walker Have It Both Ways: Conservative Now, Moderate Later?"

Well, can anybody have it both ways? It's not just Scott Walker. (At Memeorandum.)

National Review on Wisconsin Democrat Party's 'John Doe' Investigations

I remember reading about the Democrat Party's Nazi-style "John Doe" raids a couple of years ago, at the Wall Street Journal, "Wisconsin Political Speech Raid."

As terrifying as initial reports were, you get a genuine appreciation of Democrat Gestapo tactics with National Review's report, "Wisconsin's Shame: ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Patterico writes:

The investigations were conducted at the behest of a prosecutor whose offices “were festooned with the ‘blue fist’ poster of the labor-union movement.” According to one prosecutor who spoke to journalist Stuart Taylor, the wife of the lead prosecutor, John Chisholm, was “a teachers’-union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10’s union reforms” — and Chisholm “felt it was his personal duty” to stop the reforms. Pursuant to the politically motivated subpoenas lacking in probable cause, prosecutors subpoenaed electronic data such as emails and conducted these abusive raids.

It’s the type of activity you would expect to see from the Stasi in East Germany. Conservative activists in Wisconsin literally do not feel safe. They think that police could burst into their homes at any moment to punish them for their First Amendment activity.

In a country that actually valued freedom, this story would spark front-page headlines all over the country. It would be all anyone would be talking about for weeks, and nobody would rest until we knew it could never, ever happen again.

We are no longer such a country.

Gestapo. Stasi. Well, you get the point.

More at Instapundit.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper Protects Her Twitter Account

I'll give her credit, though.

She did post a series of apologetic tweets yesterday, which I saw and thought about blogging, considering the hail of vituperation she brought down on herself with her smug dissing of critics.

At Twitchy, "Jezebel writer who smeared Scott Walker has protected her Twitter account."



More at the Other McCain, "Hey, @natashavc, Sorry Your Dishonest Scott Walker Smear Got Breitbarted."

Quinnipiac University Poll: Scott Walker Holds Early Lead in Iowa Republican Caucuses

This is great.

Indeed, the race is wide open, Jeb Bush.

At Quinnipiac, "Walker Has Strong Early Lead In Iowa GOP Caucus, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Conservative Base With Large Dose of Tea Party."

More from Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Video: Is Jeb Bush inevitable?"

ADDED: From Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal, "In Early Polling, Walker Stands Apart" (via Memeorandum).

Scott Walker Surging in Iowa Poll as Jeb Bush Struggles

Heh.

This is the best news on the GOP nomination front I've seen yet.

At Bloomberg:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is surging, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is an also-ran and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is dominating in a new poll of Iowans likely to vote in the nation's first presidential nominating contest.

The Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, taken Monday through Thursday, shows Walker leading a wide-open Republican race with 15 percent, up from just 4 percent in the same poll in October. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 14 percent and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, stood at 10 percent.

Bush trailed with 8 percent and increasingly is viewed negatively by likely Republican caucus-goers. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in even worse shape, with support from just 4 percent. More troubling for Christie: He's viewed unfavorably by 54 percent, among the highest negative ratings in the potential field. At 9 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson pulls more support than either Bush or Christie...

More.

Governor Scott Walker at Iowa Freedom Summit (VIDEO)

The dude with perhaps the greatest contemporary record of destroying despicable progressives.

Watch at C-SPAN, "Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) at the Iowa Freedom Summit."

At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, "'Go big and go bold' Scott Walker tells Iowa GOP summit":

Des Moines, Iowa — A day after rejecting a proposed Kenosha casino and two days after making his toughest comments yet on fighting terrorism, Gov. Scott Walker told Iowa Republicans the country needs leaders who are willing to break out fresh ideas.

"We weren't afraid to go big and go bold," Walker told some 1,200 people at the Iowa Freedom Summit.

"Maybe that's why I won the race for governor three times in the last four years. Three times, mind you, in a state that hasn't gone Republican for president since I was in high school more than 30 years ago... If you're not afraid to go big and go bold, you can actually get results. You can applaud for that. And if you get the job done, the voters will actually stand up with you."

And applaud they did. Walker — one of several potential presidential candidates who spoke Saturday — received hearty responses as he talked about putting restrictions on abortion, approving a voter ID law, giving people the right to carry concealed weapons and tightly limiting collective bargaining for public workers.

"I'm going to come back many more times in the future," he said.

Shit just got real.

OK, now it gets real, here comes Scott Walker #freedomsummit

— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) January 24, 2015

Scott Walker All but Declares That He's Seeking the Presidency

According to Ann Althouse.



Well, he's a proven winner. What can you say?