Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to announce candidacy for POTUS

NPR: 5 Things You Should Know About Scott Walker
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The Republican begins as the favorite in early primary state Iowa, a post he's kept since his rousing speech there in January. He benefits from being the neighboring governor and will look now to carve a path that goes beyond the Hawkeye State. He has vaulted into the top tier of GOP White House hopefuls and is a lock to make the debate stage next month.

It's a relatively short read... and a good one.  To those too busy to read it, the 5 things are:

1. He was elected statewide three times in four years

2. He is tied to three presidential battleground states

3. Walker caught the political bug early

4. Walker never graduated from college

5. The mystery of the Desperado


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There are things I like about him. He doesn't shy away from problems... or throw half-assed solutions at them that simply grow govt.

According to Yahoo News in this article,

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...But it did highlight the coziness between the Kochs and Walker, who are so ideologically in synch that the industrialist brothers have had a hard time suppressing their glee at the prospect that the Wisconsin governor could become the next president of the United States. The Kochs are particularly impressed by Walker’s fight to slash public unions’ collective bargaining rights and subsequent triumph in a recall election. David Koch told the Palm Beach Post at the time that he thought Walker’s battle with public sector unions was “courageous” and “critically important.”

But as Walker gears up to announce his presidential bid, one major area of disagreement remains between him and Kochworld: the effectiveness and fairness of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Walker remains attached to the tough-on-crime policies that helped make his reputation as a young politician in the Wisconsin Assembly in the ’90s; the Kochs, on the other hand, have helped lead a conservative movement to reverse many of those same laws, which they regard as callous and an example of government overreach run amok. Most of the leading GOP candidates now echo the Kochs’ concerns about America’s enormous prison population and agree the system needs reform. But Walker’s extensive personal role in passing the laws that are now being rolled back puts him in tough spot: If he backs off too far from his original positions, he could look like a flip-flopper, but if he sticks to his guns, he might seem like a tough-on-crime relic and could alienate his most important backers.

Well, Chris Parnell would be happy about it. He'd have his old job back at SNL.

PkrBum wrote:

There are things I like about him. He doesn't shy away from problems... or throw half-assed solutions at them that simply grow govt.

Like the idea that he's used in Wisconsin that in order to receive a welfare check you must be enrolled/attending a training course for employment and must submit to a drug screening test....Also, he's survived the onslaught of liberals and unions that have attempted to bring him down and he's won/survived and Wisconsin is what you'd call a hotbed for conservatives....Always favor governors as candidates a little more because they've had to be an executive and deal with budgets and opposition from sometimes the majority party in the legislature always has amazed me that states are required to have a balanced budget and yet we allow the Fed Govt to be a continuing growing out of control monster....

In his younger years he looks a bit like Keanu Reeves.

I think he is very hard right and it has worked for him in Wisconsin. I don't see the majority of Americans, or the electoral college numbers, giving him the victory in the 2016 election.

He is probably politically astute enough that he knows what works at the state level may not work at the National causing him to lean more towards center. Also he is not Trump.....he immediately gets points for that.

He's shown no example of leaning toward center unless I've missed something.

Linda wrote:

He's shown no example of leaning toward center unless I've missed something.

He's just starting the national program, maybe he will in time. Or maybe he won't. I certainly can't predict what any politician will do!

nochain wrote:

He is probably politically astute enough that he knows what works at the state level may not work at the National causing him to lean more towards center. Also he is not Trump.....he immediately gets points for that.

The whole point is that Wisconsin is hardly a right-wing conservative state and Gov. Walker has survived a re-call election in which he faced union opposition and bused in disruptive organizers from Chicago...If he's smart enough to understand what works at the state level and allows states to decide on some issues that are best for that state then he far ahead of the cowh and/or hrc...they both believe that DC is the answer to all...