Whatever you want, suckers.
Don't like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's stance on an issue, Iowa voters? Just wait ten minutes,
it'll change.
But last weekend, within the borders of corn-rich Iowa—the state upon which Walker appears most intensely focused for his all-but-announced presidential bid—he sang a different tune. Joining other potential candidates at the Iowa Ag Summit, Walker said he was "willing to go forward on continuing the Renewable Fuel Standard," a federal policy that requires fuel used in the US to contain at least 10 percent "renewable fuel," usually ethanol and other biofuel.
As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted, this represents a complete about-face for Walker, who made enemies in Wisconsin for his long resistance to robust ethanol subsidies.
Indeed. But that was then, this is now, and Scott Walker would toss every one of his prior deep personal convictions into a pit full of alligators and/or battery acid if he thought it would gain him a few more precious points in the Iowa polls. This is the state, after all, that caused New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to have sudden newfound convictions on the vagaries of pig husbandry. There seems to be no end to the persuasiveness of Iowa conservatives.
For the record, ethanol production via corn has turned out to be a bad idea worth shelving. Producing the stuff creates more total pollution than burning fossil fuels, it's taken so much land out of food production that our food prices have risen as a result, and without the government mandate requiring its large-scale production the whole enterprise would be unsustainable. It's one of those things that, in a better world, both parties ought to be able to agree was a failed experiment that needs to be either seriously reworked or canned outright.
But Iowa has a critical early position in the presidential races, of course, and Iowa is a key producer of both corn and political pandering, and that means Scott Walker will have whatever opinion Iowa farmers want him to have. For the moment, anyway; the most noteworthy thing about Scott Walker has been that no matter what policy stances he takes before an election, once that election is over his stances often change right back. He's one of the biggest liars in politics, and that is saying something.