During an appearance on Friday’s PBS NewsHour, liberal columnist Mark Shields questioned Scott Walker’s readiness to be president as he argued “there’s a lingering sort of “I can see Alaska from my front porch” of Governor Palin with him.”
Shields played up liberal criticism of the Wisconsin governor and asked “Is he really ready for prime time?…So, I think Scott Walker has a great story to tell, but there is a question, is he going to be able to hit big league pitching?”
Earlier in the segment, New York Times columnist David Brooks surprisingly praised Walker’s candidacy and argued that “he’s got a reasonably straight shot” to the Republican nomination because “he has got a genuine working-class voice. He’s not the greatest orator in the world, but he is a good explainer, he’s a good retail politician.”
Shields conceded that Walker “ has got a story to tell. And he’s a formidable candidate” but quickly attacked his presidential qualifications:
The problem is that there’s a lingering sort of “I can see Alaska from my front porch” of Governor Palin with him. He said, for example, that, dealing with ISIS, he had dealt with public employees unions, and he didn’t -- couldn’t say whether the president himself was a Christian, and he ducked on evolution. And it just was a question.
The liberal PBS contributor continued to question Walker’s intelligence by invoking the “Rick Perry problem. Is he really ready for prime time?” before he ended the segment by pushing the line that he might not be able to handle the national spotlight:
And not helped by the fact, when he did announce, that Patrick Healy of the New York Times quoted his principal consultant as saying that smart was not in the lexicon of voters when they talked about him, but they were working on that. So, I think Scott Walker has a great story to tell, but there is a question, is he going to be able to hit big league pitching?
See relevant transcript below.
PBS NewsHour
July 17, 2015
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let’s broaden out for a minute and talk about the 2016 race. One more name has formally joined, David, this week, Governor Scott Walker, of Wisconsin. We have talked about him on this program before. But at this point, now that he’s in, what does that do to the race? Does it shake things up? What do you see?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, politically, he’s got a reasonably straight shot. His strategy is pretty clear. He’s got to win Iowa, the first caucuses. He’s not expected to do super well in New Hampshire, but then he’s got to probably do pretty well in South Carolina. And if he does that, he will be sitting pretty. He will be -- he’s definitely already in the top three, I think, now, but he will be riding high just from the media exposure. His advantages are that he has got a genuine working-class voice. He’s not the greatest orator in the world, but he is a good explainer, he’s a good retail politician.
And for conservatives, unlike people like Ted Cruz, who haven’t really achieved much, Scott Walker can actually point to legislative accomplishments as governor. And so I think he has a reasonably strong story to tell, will be a reasonably strong candidate. The only caveat I would put in, I would say, in the last two or three months, he hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire. And he’s let Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and others sort of take some of the momentum of the campaign, but he is going to be strong, I think.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Setting the world on fire, Mark?
MARK SHIELDS: I think setting the world on fire is a euphemism. Judy, the fact is Wisconsin is a blue state. No Democrat has lost -- presidential nominee has lost Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan won it for the Republicans in 1984. It’s the only state that has elected an openly lesbian United States senator, Tammy Baldwin. Three times in four years, Scott Walker has won very close elections in Wisconsin. And he’s a favorite of a lot of conservatives because he did take on public employee unions. He has delivered.
He’s a social and cultural conservative, as well as economic conservative. He has got a story to tell. And he’s a formidable candidate. He’s going to have considerable financial backing. The problem is that there’s a lingering sort of “I can see Alaska from my front porch” of Governor Palin with him. He said, for example, that, dealing with ISIS, he had dealt with public employees unions, and he didn’t -- couldn’t say whether the president himself was a Christian, and he ducked on evolution. And it just was a question.
There was a Rick Perry problem. Is he really ready for prime time? And not helped by the fact, when he did announce, that Patrick Healy of the New York Times quoted his principal consultant as saying that smart was not in the lexicon of voters when they talked about him, but they were working on that. So, I think Scott Walker has a great story to tell, but there is a question, is he going to be able to hit big league pitching?
