Walker Walks Away From Jobs Pledge; Endorsing Media Should Walk From Him

I said a few days ago that newspapers endorsing Walker already had all the evidence they needed to walk away from Walker, particularly over his failure to stay on track to meet his central campaign promise of 250,000 new jobs.

And because he is a frequent false speaker, according to PolitiFact - - which has also taken note of his inability to speak truthfully about his job creating record:

Says that in his first two years, "Wisconsin has seen its best two-year job growth in a decade."

Scott Walker on Monday, July 29th, 2013 in a campaign press statement

So what will these papers do with this preposterous, almost incoherent 'diagram-that-sentence' Walker uttered in Merrill yesterday, and where he redefined the promise into a goal?

Walker backs off campaign jobs pledge at Merrill stop

On Monday in Merrill, he carefully backed away from the specific number.

"My goal wasn't so much to hit a magic number as much as it was, in the four years before I took office, when I was campaigning, I saw that we lost over 133,000 jobs in the state. I said, 'it's really not about jobs, it's about real people, real jobs like those here, and more importantly, affecting real families all across the state,'" Walker said.

Major media, especially those that endorsed him, simply cannot let him spin, parse and mutter his way way away from his earlier words.

Square that Merrill comment with his words, reprinted here that have flowed across the Internet since 2010 when he made it the centerpiece of his campaign for Governor:

"If you elect me as your next governor, I'll get government out of the way and lower the tax burden so Wisconsin business owners and factories can create 250,000 jobs and 10,000 businesses in our state by 2015,” Walker said in a February 2010 speech. 

On June 19, 2011, PolitiFact repeatedly said Walker's job-creation figure was a "promise," and quoted Walker saying the figure was just a floor, not the ceiling: 

Walk-O-Meter will track Walker's job promise  

Gov. Scott Walker's legacy will, in many respects, be measured by one number: 250,000. 

That's the number of private-sector jobs Walker promised will be created during his four-year term, which began in January.  

It was the central promise of his 2010 campaign, and Walker has mentioned it routinely since taking office.... 

At a recent appearance before the Waupaca Chamber of Commerce, Walker called the 250,000 figure "a minimum, not a maximum."

Here is how the AP put it in a story I quoted in October, 2011:

An economic forecast by Gov. Scott Walker's own administration predicts that Wisconsin will fall far short of adding the 250,000 new private-sector jobs by 2015 that the governor promised as a key part of his successful election campaign. 

The Department of Revenue report released Friday predicts that by 2014, the state will have added only 136,000 jobs in the private sector compared with 2010. The job growth estimate was down 43,000 from the department's previous report released in June. 

Walker promised while he was campaigning that the state would add 250,000 jobs during his four years in office... But like the national economy, growth has been sluggish in Wisconsin this year and job growth is not track to meet Walker's pledge.

Does Walker think no one remembers that history, and that he has repeated it often, and included it in his 2013 State of the State speech in January? Here's how the Business Journal reported it:

State of the State: Walker sticks to 250,000 jobs pledge 

In Gov. Scott Walker’s third “State of the State” address, he restated his pledge to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin by the end of his first term two years from now.