Walker falls out: "The short answer is money"

Not even Charles and David Koch had enough to save him from himself.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has concluded he no longer has a path to the Republican presidential nomination and plans to drop out of the 2016 campaign, according to three Republicans familiar with his decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Walker called a news conference in Madison at 6 p.m. Eastern time (about one hour from the time of this post).

“The short answer is money,” said a supporter of Mr. Walker’s who was briefed on the decision. “He’s made a decision not to limp into Iowa.”

What does it say about our post-Citizens United political environment when not even the backing of the Kochs can save you?  Being a moron trumps everything, I suppose (pun intended).

The supporter said Mr. Walker’s fund-raising had dried up after his decline in the polls and that campaign officials did not feel they could risk going into debt with the race so uncertain. The governor, who was scheduled to be in New York and Washington this week, partly to raise money, had built up an expansive staff, bringing on aides and consultants detailed to everything from Christian conservative outreach to Super Tuesday states. But his fund-raising did not keep pace with the money needed to sustain such an infrastructure.

Super PAC millions, where are you?  Kindly go back to late January and read what I wrote then about the emergence of Walker.  It's good for some laughs.  Trump has, as we all know, completely reshuffled the race.  Big Jolly has probably moved on -- all confused things considered -- along with the rest of the Harris County GOP, who hosted Walker in March as keynoter for their Rincoln-Leagan Dinner in March.

Gone but not forgotten.  Nobody, not even Rick Perry, ever flamed out faster.

Update: Walker's 11 worst moments as a candidate.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes everyone a happy and balanced equinox as it brings you this week's roundup of lefty blog posts from around the Lone Star State.

Off the Kuff stands with Ahmed.

Socratic Gadfly turns a bit of a skeptical eye to European panic over the Syrian refugee crisis and provides some critical analysis of how it's being handled.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos, and contributing to Daily Kos, tried her very best to watch the second GOP presidential debate but she just couldn't take it any more. She hung in there for two hours and twenty minutes. GOP Debate: A trip back to the Twilight Zone

Tired of watching Bernie Sanders surge, Clinton surrogates grabbed the 'socialist' brush and started smearing him.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs is pretty certain that this is how it's going to go until the Sanders campaign no longer represents a threat to her coronation nomination.

Starring David Brock as The Elephant

WCNews at Eye on Williamson sees it becoming clear that the GOP in Texas has no problem with the cuts to Medicaid therapy. They just don't want to be blamed for it: Abbott, GOP want cuts, but no blame.

jobsanger notes that the so-called economic recovery still hasn't reached the middle class.

nonsequiteuse instructs a Houston bar not to use her as an excuse to practice bigotry.

TXsharon at Bluedaze documents another worker's death from fatal fracking vapors.

Neil at All People Have Value said that Alexander Hamilton should remain on the $10 bill. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

And Egberto Willies passes along the Paul Krugman viewpoint the GOP's one-percenters will not allow Donald Trump to secure the nomination... but not for the reasons you might think.

====================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Grits for Breakfast linked to the coverage of the chase for justice in Smith County.

The Texas Observer psoted on the Fifth Circuit's reversal of the convictions of Citgo's Corpus Christi refinery in violation of the Clean Air Act.

Somervell County Salon passes along the reporting about the anti-SLAPP legislation pending in Congress.

The TSTA Blog salutes education reporter Terrence Stutz on his retirement.

Paradise in Hell annotates Donald Trump's Texas speech, and celebrates its first year of blogging.

Texas Clean Air Matters explains why parents should care about climate change.

David Ortez reports from a Houston mayoral forum on issues facing younger voters.

Danyahel Norris illustrates the importance of Houston's equal rights ordinance.

Lawflog recounts the ongoing tussle between the Booger County Mafia and the city of Hearne's residents.

Finally, the TPA congratulates Lize Burr on her new positions as editor and publisher of the Burnt Orange Report.

Sunday Funnies, Not Debatable edition

Coming to you live

After years of faithful service, my Toshiba Satellite (running Vista, no less!) finally gave up the ghost.  So henceforth Brains will be coming at you with the latest Lenovo technology (4GB and 1 terabyte of memory with Windows 8.1 for awhile until I feel comfortable on it, then upgrading to 10).  While we get back up to posting speed, share with me your experiences running and playing on 8 and 10, please.

My first download is going to be my AdBlocker Plus.  How do you people tolerate all these obnoxious ads?

Fright Night went pie fight

If you read yesterday's predictive analysis, and then watched some of the proceedings (or better yet, followed it on Twitter) then you know things went pretty much according to script.

Trump got beat up.

But whether it was the rattled moment after Jeb Bush dinged him for trying to buy his way into the Florida casino business or when he sputtered through what was (without him) a thoughtful foreign policy discussion, the emperor of the Republican field certainly looked like he forgot his clothes on Wednesday. And that was before his crazy answer on vaccines and autism, or his utter vanquishing at the hands of Carly Fiorina, responding to his comment about her face. 

The other candidates, better polished and better prepared than last time, came across as people who know stuff. Their discussions about government shutdowns, foreign policy, and drug policy had, by the standards of these things, some degree of depth. 

And Trump was noticeably muted through all that.

Maybe his back was hurting from standing for three hours.

Speaking of Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO—so far the lone success story from the undercard debate—built on her success there and showed that her fight to get onto the main stage in the first place was worth it. She not only slayed Trump, she showed she could be the outsider to beat. 

Her answer about defunding Planned Parenthood got some of the loudest applause of the night—second only, perhaps, to her response to Jake Tapper’s question about Trump’s remarks on her appearance.

There's your winner winner, chicken dinner, folks.  She's gonna be movin' on up again.

Beyond that, this was a night of missed opportunities for Jeb Bush, another deer-in-the-headlights moment for Ben Carson, a weed meme, and the same old elephant in the room.  Oh, and Ted Cruz lied about Planned Parenthood again.

It's as entertaining as watching the Housewives of Beverly Hills until you realize one of these morons is going to be on the ballot in November 2016, and that millions of other morons are going to vote for him -- or her -- without a second thought.  Joke's over.

ABC's "9 moments that mattered" is only eight; throw out the one about Rubio.  And this is what 'post-debate spin' looks like.

Did anybody ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz when we're going to have some Democratic debates?  Why, yes they did, and she happens to be thrilled that the clamor for more is being drowned out by the Republicans' food fighting.  Now that's leadership.

Update: Fiorina's star turn -- though she was hideously wrong on climate change, and hyperbolic on Planned Parenthood -- isn't going to last, according to No More Mister Nice because she's not country enough.  That's a fair point, but I think she's got enough crazy going on that the Teabagger base can get along with her.  I still say she's going to fit well as a running mate for anybody except Donald Trump.  And more and better from Vox on all of this, with nearly no mention of Scott Walker or Chris Christie or Rand Paul or Marco Rubio.  That's precisely accurate.  Bobby Jindal and Lindsey Graham's tete-a-tete on immigration in the matinee got more play than Mike Huckabee.  That nails it as well.