Scott Walker is learning that when you want to play in the big leagues, things move pretty fast. And when you're a governor without foreign policy experience, sometimes you can get a little tripped up trying to show how what you've done in your state prepares you for dealing with international challenges. So today Walker getting criticism for saying, in his speech to CPAC yesterday (it was actually in the Q&A session) that he can handle terrorists the same way he handled public sector unions in Wisconsin. Even some conservatives criticized him for it, but what's alarming isn't that he "compared" a bunch of Wisconsinites to ISIS, which of course he wasn't trying to do. What's alarming is that he thinks that you need the same skills and approach to dealing with unhappy constituents as you do with terrorists.
Here's what he actually said:
"I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists do not wash up on American soil. We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil but do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. We need a leader with that kind of confidence. If I can take on a 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world."
Then later he tried to walk it back:
"Let me be perfectly clear: I'm just pointing out the closest thing I have to handling this difficult situation is the 100,000 protesters I had to deal with," Walker told reporters. Asked if he regretted the statement, he said, "No."
"You all will misconstrue things the way you see fit," he said. "That's the closest thing I have in terms of handling a difficult situation, not that there's any parallel between the two."
I doubt there are many limits to Walker's contempt for people who want to bargain collectively, but obviously he didn't mean to say they're like terrorists. What he did mean to say, I'm fairly certain, is that he can bring the same kind of uncompromising toughness to combatting ISIS that he brought to his successful attempt to crush the public sector unions. The unions were his enemy then; ISIS will be his enemy if he gets to be president.
And this is what we need to explore, not only with Walker but with all the Republican candidates. They'll all be eager to tell you that on this problem, Barack Obama is weak and indecisive, whereas if you're sufficiently tough, the problem can be solved. But you know who was tough, uncompromising, and brimming with the "confidence" Walker cites? George W. Bush. When it came to terrorists, you couldn't get much tougher than that guy. Heck, not only did he invade two countries, he even started a program to torture prisoners. Super-tough, am I right?
But you may have noticed that when Bush left office, there were still terrorists. Al-Qaeda had been transformed from a centrally-run organization into a network of franchises, all of which are potentially dangerous. And then out of the ashes of the Iraq War grew ISIS. For some unfathomable reason, toughness wasn't quite enough to solve the problem.
So that's how I'd pose the question to these candidates if I had the chance: You talk a lot about being strong and tough and showing resolve, and "sending messages" of strength and toughness and resolve, but George W. Bush did all those things, and yet the problem remains. So what do we do now?
