If you think the headline is referring to The Evil Koch Brothers, it’s not.
My friend Matt Johnson explains the significance of this photo:
The photograph features Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pointing at a protestor in the front row as Walker was giving a speech at the fair. The protestor is holding a sign. From behind the protestor a person is jumping up to rip the sign out of the protestor’s hand.
The Associated Press cutline reads: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confronts a protestor as a supporter grabs his sign during a visit Monday to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. ‘I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there,’ Walker told protesters attempting to disrupt his open-air ‘soap-box’ comments to Iowa State Fair attendees who were mostly supportive of his message. ‘We will not back down. We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward.’ … ‘The left doesn’t want me to be your nominee because they know I don’t just talk, I deliver on my promises. I will do that as your next president.’ he said.”
This situation is common at public events like this — especially those featuring Gov. Walker. It’s well known, at least here in Wisconsin, that Walker can’t travel unless it is to a manicured, predetermined destination. The people who like Walker really like him. The people who dislike Walker really dislike him.
So, Walker is speaking at the Iowa State Fair — that’s what presidential candidates do. And a protestor is in the front row with a sign… That can be common. And it can also be commonly set-up by the opposition of the candidate. Furthermore, there’s a guy jumping up to rip the sign out of the protestor’s hand. That certainly could be just some average joe from the crowd who got upset. But it also likely could be a planted Walker staffer in the audience there to do such things.
This isn’t fantasy, it’s been political reality for ages.
You have to think back to the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon Administration. As Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein dug into the Watergate break-in, they uncovered all sorts of political subversion tactics used to propel Nixon over many years.
One such practice was outlined in the movie “All the President’s Men” and it has an abhorrent name — because the practice is equally abhorrent.
As is described, and what has become common practice, political opponents try to subvert one another.
“They bugged, they followed people, false press leaks, fake letters, they canceled… campaign rallies, they investigated… private lives, they planted spies, stole documents, on and on,” as it’s explained.
So, when you see somebody holding a sign in a front row at a political event, and when you see somebody jumping out of the crowd to grab that sign — it’s likely part of a bigger strategy. Political opponents are fighting each other to control the presentation of the message.
Walker’s campaign won Monday’s exchange. His quote about fighting for the American people was the focus.
Still, it’s far from polite to hold a sign in front of Walker’s face. Also, who was jumping to rip the sign out of the man’s hand? Was it an average joe? Republican event organizer? Walker staffer?
It’s politics as usual, and you’ll see a lot more of it until November of 2016.
Matt referred to the people who really dislike Walker. And Chris Rickert explains that they are really Walker’s best political allies:
A wooden first-debate performance and the attention-sucking presence of Donald Trump had Walker falling out of the lead in polls in Iowa, where he needs to win or place a strong second in the caucuses next year to have any chance at capturing the GOP nomination.
Then came the kind of boost he relies on.
It would be understandable if it were mostly Iowa union members who acted as Walker’s foils during his remarks Monday at the Des Moines Register’s Candidate Soapbox — a common stop for presidential candidates at the Iowa State Fair.
Iowans wouldn’t be expected to understand that it’s the haters — and especially the haters from organized labor — that give Walker his mojo.
But about 50 of the 75 people with the Service Employees International Union were bused in from Wisconsin, according to SEIU officials. They were among those waving signs, heckling, booing and otherwise making it clear they weren’t there for an autograph or a selfie with the candidate.
Worse, a Walker-detractor named Matthew Desmond made his way to the front of the stage with a sign (“Warning: Don’t let Scott Walker do to America what he did to Wisconsin”) so that Walker could point at him and declare: “I am not intimidated by you, sir!”
Dian Palmer, a registered nurse and president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, said Desmond wasn’t with her group. But that hardly matters.
Less than an hour after the exchange, Walker’s campaign posted 27 seconds of video on YouTube entitled “Scott Walker To Protester: ‘I Am Not Intimidated.’”
“I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there,” Walker says in the video, the applause building. “I will fight for the American people over and over and over and over again. You want someone who’s tested? I’m right here. You can see it! This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down. We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward.”
Walker is not the flashy billionaire (Trump), the brilliant outsider (Ben Carson), the youthful Floridian to bring in the Latino vote (Marco Rubio), the libertarian (Rand Paul) or the scion of American political dynasty (Jeb Bush).
Without the union types and other leftists to stand up to, Walker is just another middle-aged white guy with a bald spot, a nasally Midwestern twang and some pretty conventional (if conservative) politics. In a crowd of 17 people running for the GOP nomination, he would be easy to overlook.
Cathy Glasson, president of the Iowa SEIU Local 199, said the union would continue to “call out” Walker as he campaigns around her state. …
“Being the bully in the room … gets old,” she said, referring to Walker.But then Walker’s victory in the 2012 recall, his 2014 re-election and his status among the top tier of Republican presidential candidates suggests she’s wrong.
Here is the video Walker’s best friends participated in to boost Walker’s campaign:
One of two things obviously will happen. Either Walker will be elected president, which means he won’t be governor of Wisconsin anymore; Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch then would become governor, and she’s not a moderate either. (I suppose option 1B is that Walker isn’t elected president, but another Republican is, and that Republican names Walker to a Cabinet post, as Gov. Tommy Thompson was named by George W. Bush.) If Walker (or another Republican) doesn’t get elected president, Walker will remain as governor. Either way, the Wisconsin left loses.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
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