Well, at least he and his advisors understand, unlike some politicians in NH, that you CANNOT WIN WITHOUT CONSERVATIVES! From Mediaite (emphasis mine):
Congratulations on your official presidential announcement, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Now you get to spend part of your day explaining away something one of your advisers said. Speaking — wait for it — anonymously to National Journal’s Tim Alberta, a Walker adviser tried to calm fears the candidate was moving too far to the right in order to win the Iowa caucus by intimating that positions taken this early on are contingent.
Contingent? Contingent on WHAT?
“You start in Iowa and lock up conservatives, because if you don’t do that, none of the rest matters,” the adviser said. “It’s much easier to move from being a conservative to being a middle-of-the-road moderate later on.”
Well, at least we’re worthy of getting a checkbox, eh? Is that what we are good for? A grab and dash? And then the truth of the matter: say what you need to and then double-cross later. Is double-cross too harsh of a term? Nope. People are tired of it, especially in the conservative wing of the Party.
Look, are they not looking at Trump? Have these Smart People consultants not learned anything? Plain speaking, truthful speaking, gets Trump his numbers regardless of what you think of his stances or his rhetoric. In this snippet above, a confirmation is “gaffed”- sell yourself for votes, and then sell again another way for another set of votes – in hopes that the first subset won’t notice? Yes, in one way it does make some sense but it is senseless to sell yourself to people whose expectations are set with a high bar – and then lower it right away. Then they wonder why the Conservatives base is throwing up their hands in anger and just stay home when they realize they were double crossed for the general? That the authenticity should be a prized attribute but when the marketing of such turns out to be hollow, discontent sets in. And then they wonder where the votes disappeared to…
They forget Trust is their only stock in trade – and when smacked in the face like this may have consequences. The high priced consultants in NH certainly got it wrong back in November. They fail to realize that flip-flopping to buy another subset of the electorate is tantamount to loosing the same subset that brung them to the dance. Rinse, repeat, #FAIL.
