Talk-radio host Jerry Bader:

It’s accepted that Rush Limbaugh’s show was instrumental in the Republican Revolution of 1994. But national talk hosts dissatisfied with John McCain as the Republican nominee in 2008 (who could forget Limbaugh’s parody song “Who’ll stop McCain” to the tune of “Who’ll stop the Rain”) and Mitt Romney in 2012 were unable to keep them from landing in the general election.

But what McCain and Romney show is that national hosts have little success in breaking candidates and very little recent history in trying to make them. That looks to change in 2016 and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker could be the beneficiary. Limbaugh and fellow talker Sean Hannity have made no secret that they find a Walker candidacy very attractive. Hannity has had Walker as a guest quite often and Limbaugh has talked him up frequently, but never like on Monday, when he gushed praise for Walker’s Saturday Iowa performance. Here’s a sampling:

Scott Walker has shown the Republican Party how to beat the left. Scott Walker has the blueprint for winning and winning consistently and winning big in a blue state with conservative principles that are offered with absolutely no excuses.  The left, the Democrat Party, threw everything at Scott Walker trying to destroy him.  They did everything they could.  He not only withstood it all, he survived and triumphed over all of it.  They broke rules. They got close to breaking laws. They were threatening his family personally, and he remained undeterred.

Limbaugh also addressed the “dull” label that has been pinned on Walker:

Now, we’re constantly told — the Drive-By Media, and even some of the Republican establishment, try to portray Scott Walker as a totally colorless guy, when he’s not.  But that’s the image that’s been set forth.  Make no mistake. It’s so frustrating in a sense, folks.

That might be Limbaugh’s most important point out of a long segment on Walker that included sound bytes from Walker’s speech. Those who bought into the notion that Walker was Tim Pawlenty 2.0 were taken aback by his performance. I saw Walker speak in Green Bay the night before last November’s election. He was even more electric there than he was on stage [Jan.  24]. The dull/bland/boring tag was never accurate.

But back on point; do national talk show hosts backing mean anything to a presidential candidate in 2016? Yes, but how much? It’s difficult to measure but what’s important is both Limbaugh and Hannity are excited about Scott Walker. Limbaugh has a longstanding rule about staying out of primaries. You can make the case he’s come very close to abandoning that rule already with Walker. The Democratic strategies in recent years has been to use a conservative talk radio endorsement as a kiss of death for Republican candidates; “if those radio wing nuts like him, he must be extreme.” Walker clearly doesn’t fear that and has embraced the reception he’s getting from talk radio’s two most-listened-to hosts.

2012 and the endless Republican primary debates brought us candidates du jour whose shelf life didn’t last beyond the next debate. Neither Limbaugh nor Hannity had sustained passion for any of those candidates.

Walker seemingly jumped to upper tier candidate status with a surprise showing (surprise to those outside Wisconsin) in Iowa [Jan. 24]. Sustained support from Limbaugh and Hannity would be invaluable in the marathon dark horse strategy observers say Walker has deployed.