Since Scott Walker is both a “threat to reproductive rights” and a deceitful doofus, he would be an unusually dangerous Republican presidential nominee, argued lefty pundit Amanda Marcotte in a Monday blog post for Slate.
If the race pits Walker against Hillary Clinton, the Wisconsin governor “could give her a real run for her money,” wrote Marcotte, “because Walker does a much better job than most of the Republican field at lulling low-information voters into thinking he's a moderate…[If] female and young voters…don’t realize that Walker is a scary woman-basher, they might not mobilize in the numbers Clinton needs. That's something Walker will be counting on.”
From Marcotte’s piece (bolding added):
Walker may seem kind of doofy, but if he goes up against Clinton in the general election, he could give her a real run for her money. That's because Walker does a much better job than most of the Republican field at lulling low-information voters into thinking he's a moderate.
Nowhere is this more evident than on the issue of reproductive choice. Walker is a hardline anti-choice ideologue with a zero percent rating from NARAL and a 100 percent rating from Wisconsin Right to Life. Walker made restricting abortion access a major priority of his administration, signing a law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—a standard ruse that exploits fears about women's safety as a front to eliminate legal abortion. Walker is on record supporting a total ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest...
Despite his radical views, Walker ran a 2014 campaign ad which implied he's pro-choice, arguing that his attempt to legislate legal abortion out of existence "leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor." But the decision isn't left to you and your doctor if the doctor is not allowed to work with you…
Walker is also good at acting like a swell guy who's just trying to help out. When asked by a conservative pundit about his support for mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, he acted like he is just trying to do the ladies a favor. ""I think about—my sons are 19 and 20, you know, we still have their first ultrasound picture," he said. "It's just a cool thing out there." What's especially cool about it is that doctors under his law are required to drag out the uncomfortable procedure as long as possible and lecture the patient about the embryo's development.
Walker's ability to shrug and pretend that he's barely interested in this issue at all could work to make him seem like less of a threat to reproductive rights—and that could make him a formidable threat to Clinton. For Clinton to win, she has to get female and young voters fired up to vote, and such voters definitely get fired up by the war on women. If they don't realize that Walker is a scary woman-basher, they might not mobilize in the numbers Clinton needs. That's something Walker will be counting on.
