I literally went to Drudge for the first time in months if not years

[Jackpine Radical]

1. What you say is normally true,

because they're a bunch of crazed ideologues, and they always go for the crazed-ideologue fundie Tea Party candidates--exactly the kind of candidate the Big Money people don't want because they can't trust the loonies to stay in line once in office. The Big Money candidate always mysteriously trumps the wingnut candidates.

That said, the problem with Walker is that he is actually a Big Money candidate in wingnut clothing. All of his so-called flip-flops were on issues that weren't popular in WI, and were in the conservative direction, aimed at the national wingnut audience. His Right-To-Work ambush in WI was likewise intended for a national audience.