RAPHAEL WARNOCK GETS DUKAKISED

Ahead of his upcoming debate with Senator Raphael Warnock, Herschel Walker is lowering expectations in a way that seems unusual but is, in a way, quintessentially Republican:

Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker (R) downplayed himself ahead of his debate with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) next month, saying “I’m not that smart” ...

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Walker was asked what kind of preparation he was doing for the debate.

“Talking to the voters, talking to you. You told me I gotta prepare, so I’m preparin’,” he said to the reporters. “I’m this country boy, you know, I’m not that smart. And he’s that preacher. He’s a smart man, wears these nice suits. So he going to show up there, embarrass me at the debate, October the 14th. And I’m just waiting, you know, I’ll show up and I’m [going to] do my best.”

Walker didn't always claim to be "not that smart." In fact, as CNN reported in April, he used to claim that he'd graduated in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia (he never graduated) and that he'd been valedictorian of his high school. CNN concluded that his school didn't have a valedictorian the year Walker graduated, but he did have good grades in high school: "Walker was a top student at his high school and the president of the Beta Club – he maintained an 'A' average to be in the school’s Beta Club," CNN reported.

But Walker isn't just claiming to have had a poor education after saying he'd had a good one. He's suggesting that Warnock is a fancypants elitist, while he's a plain-spoken ordinary guy.

Warnock is a preacher with Ph.D. in theology, but he had a modest upbringing, as AP reported last year:

He grew up in Savannah in the Kayton Homes public housing project, the second youngest of 12 children. His mother as a teenager had worked as a sharecropper picking cotton and tobacco. His father was a preacher who also made money hauling old cars to a local scrapyard.

“My daddy used to wake me up every morning at dawn,” Warnock told a hometown crowd at a drive-in rally two days before his election Tuesday. “He said, `Boy, you can’t sleep late in my house. Get up, get dressed, put your shoes on. Get ready.’”

Pushed by his parents to work hard, Warnock left Savannah and became the first member of his family to graduate from college, helped by Pell grants and low-interest student loans.

Walker's remarks aren't as nasty or hypocritical as the way George H.W. Bush treated Michael Dukakis in 1988. Dukakis was the son of Greek immigrants; Bush was a son of privilege. But Bush portrayed Dukakis as the elitist, describing some of Dukakis's policies as "born in Harvard Yard's boutique" -- a phrase that makes no sense but ends with a word that sounded sissified and French. The Yale-educated Bush, meanwhile, claimed to love pork rinds and country music. He won in a landslide. Bush's son didn't need to attack his opponents, Al Gore and John Kerry, as elitists -- the media and GOP surrogates did that for him. He won twice.

Herschel Walker could have simply claimed he's not a great speaker -- but he made it about class and breeding. That will appeal to a lot of GOP voters. This is America, so I really don't think he'll lose votes for saying he's not smart. I ho[pe I'm wrong, but I think he might win votes that way.