Walker decries "gotcha" journalists, pulls his own "gotcha" on Wisconsin

If Walker can't handle media pressure, he shouldn't be running for president

More nonsense from Gov. Scott Walker (emphasis in bold mine):

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker let out his frustration with the media this weekend over Twitter, an attempt to regain control of the narrative surrounding his refusal to comment on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s remarks questioning whether Obama “loves” America.

On Saturday, Walker decried the media’s “gotcha game,” and on Sunday he tweeted a selfie of himself and his son visiting the White House with the rest of the governors in town for the National Governors Association meeting.

Wisconsinites across the state should take real offense to Walker characterizing the media as playing a “gotcha game.” This is legitimately disturbing stuff: the governor of our state can’t say for certain whether the president loves America or not. He won't even say whether Obama is a Christian or not, which the president has pointedly shown on numerous occasions that he is.

Which is a huge implication in itself when you think about it. If Walker doesn’t know, then it means he believes there might be some truth to the idea that Obama doesn’t love America, which is absurd on its face. The only people who believe that Obama lacks love for the nation are extremists in the Republican Party.

Unfortunately for Walker, he has to court those extremists (and their views) in order to get the nomination for president. So he has to look like a fool in front of the national press -- resulting in what he calls “gotcha” journalism.

Here’s another maddening line from Walker’s courtship of the tea party-extremist base (h/t to Cognitive Dissidence) (emphasis in bold mine):

Walker argued that when Reagan fired the PATCO air-traffic controllers over their illegal strike, he was sending a message of toughness to Democrats and unions at home as well as our Soviet enemies abroad. Similarly, Walker believes his stance against unions in Wisconsin would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Seriously. Scott Walker believes that he’s standing up to Putin and jihadists when he abolishes workers’ rights.

This isn’t a “gotcha game.” This is legitimately scary stuff. Walker thinks that his actions somehow affect national policy. If he thinks for one second that Vladimir Putin is scared of him because of how he acted in Madison, then Walker’s ego is even larger and more troublesome than I originally thought.

Walker didn’t run on right to work -- he explicitly called it a “distraction.” He didn’t run on ending collective bargaining in 2010 either -- he said he was prepared to negotiate with unions. Instead he ran as an extremist disguised as a typical Wisconsin guy, who upon getting sworn in had only one thing to say to us all:

Gotcha.

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