It looks to be a crowded GOP presidential primary field, but Scott Walker has gotten a big jump on the pack by coming on strong with his "Our American Revival" campaign right after his impressive performance in an appearance before activists in Iowa. As one critic notes, the ad above is impressive on several levels, not the least of which is that it is very Reaganesque in its optimism for the future and fearlessness in presenting a vivid conservative agenda to contrast with liberalism.
“America can’t stop this by looking to the past,” the ad declares with a shot of Hillary Clinton staring blankly, stage left, “or for answers in Washington DC.” That may look like an attack on Obama and Clinton, and it certainly is on one level, but it’s a shot across the bow in the Republican primary, too. Looking to the past includes people like Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush as well as Democrats across the aisle.
The emphasis on looking to the states is even more clearly an argument against drafting the next nominee from the US Senate. “To reclaim our destiny,” the ad continues, “we must turn to bold, fresh, and new ideas from those incubators of reform — the states.” Expect more than one sitting governor to make that same argument, and the recently retired Rick Perry as well, as an argument against Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. That sounds a lot less clumsy than trying to compare them to Obama in terms of experience and lack thereof.
I've heard a few commentators speculating that Walker has all but assured himself the second spot on somebody else's ticket, but I dunno. On Pat Miller's WOWO radio show this week, I heard discussion of a Walker-Rubio ticket as a sort of dream team. Right now, I'm not sure I'd disagree with that.
