Why Walker’s refusal to answer questions about Giuliani and Obama matters. After the Rudy

Why Walker’s refusal to answer questions about Giuliani and Obama matters.

After the Rudy Giuliani debacle, Scott Walker was asked if the agreed with Rudy that Obama does not love America. Walker punted – twice. First, he refused to say whether he thought Obama loved America. Given a generous chance at a do-over by the Washington Post, he actually made it worse by refusing to say if he thought Obama was a Christian.

Conservative columnist Matt Lewis called the first non-answer “spineless” and the second “just about the worst possible answer one could imagine.” But in dressing down Walker, Lewis pulls his punches and redirects the criticism to a favorite conservative target – the media:

As you might expect, some conservatives on Twitter are rallying to his defense. They’d rather stick it to the media than find a way to overcome them. They believe that Walker’s answer somehow heroically demonstrated the absurdity of the media. They seem more interested in a candidate who wants to win the argument than one who wants to win the election. And they are less concerned about Walker’s inability to appropriately handle the question than they were by the fact that the question had been asked in the first place. In their minds, Walker is some sort of folk hero for providing that inept answer. But I can assure you, that’s not how the majority of Americans (who aren’t conservative activists on Twitter) will see it.

Again, I’m not suggesting this was a relevant or appropriate question to ask the governor of Wisconsin. I just know how the world works. As the saying goes, I didn’t write these rules, I just abide by them. And, what I am suggesting is that, this is the NFL. When you run for president—when you leave Wisconsin and go to Paris and New York City and Washington, DC and Iowa—you invite all sorts of questions. Some of these questions will be tough, others will be silly or irrelevant or “gotcha” questions. The good politicians can answer them effectively. 

Let’s look at this plainly. Rudy Giuliani made an insane (after all, the argument requires mindreading) and offensive comment about the president at a dinner with Walker. Further, Giuliani's belief is shared by plenty in the GOP base – just check Twitter. Is it wrong to ask a presidential candidate if he shares a belief in something crazy with most of the Republican base?

If a Democrat at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser said 9/11 was an inside job and most of the Democratic base believed this (thankfully, they don’t. But this is a hypothetical, mind you), would it be wrong to ask her if she agreed? I doubt anyone on the right would say no. Whether or not a potential president believes something that only crackpots believe is something everyone should want to know.

A GOP presidential candidate should be ready to answer (and definitely should be asked) the following questions:

• Do you believe the president is trying to destroy America?
• Do you believe the president loves America?
• Do you believe the president is a Marxist?
• Do you believe the president is secretly a Muslim?
• Do you believe the president is secretly an illegal alien?
• Do you believe the president is a terrorist, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, or working with ISIS?

And they should especially expect to be asked these questions if someone makes one of these arguments directly in front of them. Are you as crazy as your base? That Walker won’t answer two of these questions is cowardly. These are not “gotcha” questions. These are extremely relevant.

And if Walker thought they were irrelevant, he wouldn’t hedge.