Can Scott Walker Defeat Donald Trump by Quitting?

Scott Walker should have dropped out of the presidential race because he was an anti-worker cancer on the state of Wisconsin unfit to hold the office he has now, let alone the most important in the world. But instead Walker dropped out for the only reason any candidate for president drops out before the voting starts: he was running out of money.

He’s running out of money, of course, because he was a terrible candidate. He was a non-presence in the first two debates, content to let the other candidates talk over and past him. The more he stumped, the less voters liked him, culminating in a humiliating CNN national poll this week in which he couldn’t manage to register 1 percent.

But “I’m out of dough; see ya later, haters” isn’t much of a note to go out on, and clearly Walker wanted his unmemorable campaign to end on a memorable note. So instead he claimed as he dropped out so someone would have a chance of beating Donald Trump.

“Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

“I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current frontrunner.”

Walker didn’t say who else should drop out, or whom he thought establishment Republicans should anoint now that he’s leaving. Walker’s own support – once significant, now paltry – wouldn’t add much to the total needed to beat Donald Trump.

Clearly Jeb Bush should go. He’s spent the past few months disproving the generally held notion that he was the smart brother, and his poll numbers have dived nearly as sharply as Walker’s.