Posted on 06/16/2012 10:25:42 PM PDT by tsowellfan
WASHINGTON -- Running as a reformer with a “clear, bold plan” and perhaps naming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) as his running mate will certainly help Mitt Romney carry Wisconsin and perhaps defeat Barack Obama this November.
So said the man whose name has recently become synonymous with Wisconsin and public sector union reform: Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose initiatives requiring some public employees to pay for part of their pensions and health care premiums resulted in his becoming the third governor in U.S. history to face a recall election. Thursday morning, nine days after emerging triumphant from the recall race, the 43-year-old Walker spoke to reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
Although a Rasmussen Poll recently showed Romney leading Obama by a margin of 47 to 46 percent among likely voters in Wisconsin, Walker says “if Gov. Romney looks at Wisconsin, and that he can just because I have an ‘R’ next to my name and he has an ‘R’ next to his name, if voters see that as just about being a Republican, that’s not enough to win in Wisconsin.”
Walker believes that for Romney to become the first Republican to carry the Badger State’s 10 electoral votes since 1984, he must “feel that instead of just thinking Republican when they see that ‘R’, instead think of ‘reformer,’ and think: here’s a candidate for president who has a clear bold plan to take on the economic and fiscal crisis that our country faces, I think he’s got a shot.”
Recalling how he was 13 when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, Walker said that he knew then and could still recite the vision of reform Reagan laid out: “strong national defense, limited government, lower taxes.”
Much as Reagan’s race against Jimmy Carter was not only a referendum on Carter, Walker said, Romney’s campaign “cannot just be a referendum on Obama. Romney’s got to have a plan [voters] can believe in.”
Walker’s own defeat of Democrat Tom Barrett in the special election June 5 sparked talk that the Walker organization could simply be transferred to Romney and that would be the GOP hopeful’s ticket to carrying the state. Clearly, Walker himself does not think that it's so simple.
This reporter cited his own coverage of the recall in Madison and Waukesha and pointed out to the governor that several Republican consultants voiced concern on Election Day that there was not an “infantry” of his supporters to turn supporters out as the Democrats and labor unions had.
Agreeing that there were a lot of people on the ground to help turn out Democratic support, Walker said “we didn’t need a bullhorn or protest sign [to turn out our supporters]. We got as many votes in the primary as the top two Democratic primary contenders.” After all the money spent by labor unions on trying to recall several state senators, a state supreme court justice, and Walker himself, the governor said, he and his team knew where their votes were “months ago.”
Rather than having people on the ground, he explained, “we had a victory office where callers made voter contact calls” to remind backers of the governor to vote. This was put together by the campaign working jointly with the Republican National Committee.
Walker went on to make clear his first choice for Romney’s running mate was his “fellow cheese-head [Republican Rep.] Paul Ryan,” who, he said, “has incredible respect on both sides of the aisle,” and that is “even among people who don’t agree with him.”
After Ryan, Walker said, “there are governors who would make a great match” with Romney, and they include New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Indiana’s Mitch Daniels, and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.
Mitt Happens.
I agree with Scott Walker he should nominate a solid conservative as his Veep.
Good luck with it happening! Conservatives are just not excited about Mitt Romney.
DUMP WILLARD FOR WALKER !
JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALIST RINOS !
I second that.
I told my brother-in-law a couple years ago that I think Paul Ryan will eventually be president.
IMO, Romney’s VP choice will tell us whether he’s going to at least paying lip service to keeping conservatives on board, or tell us to go *bleep* ourselves. I honestly don’t know which way he’ll go at this point.
I don’t want Ryan to be ruined by Romney. He’d be Palinized before his time.
VP is just a bone to throw at us. Romney needs to be the conservative, not the guy he picks to attend state funerals.
If he doesn’t even throw us that bone, that means he thinks he doesn’t need us. That would tell us a great deal about him.
Whatever it takes to get Ryan as the VP pick.. Unfortunately, Mitt probably called Rubio and told him to say that 0bama’s recently Amnesty rule “was a good thing”. Miit didn’t want to go out on a limb and say it himself, so he used his potential VP pick as proxy.
Wisconsin: Scott Walker advice to Mitt romney ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
There are some potential VP picks who are great for their states but not for the country as a whole. Chris Christie is one of them. He seems to be doing good work up there in NJ, but do the rest of us want him near the top levers of national power? Not this voter.
I like how Walker is leveraging his new political juice. God knows he`s earned it.
'Good Luck' indeed. Mitt, of course; does not please many of us. There is real courage of Leadership to be had (and Conservative, by definition); but 'why go there'; appears the unfortunate MO, of ignorant Repub hierarchy.
That said; 'pleased' or otherwise; a 'vote Republican' is critical. We know that; or should. Without it; the ultimately 'fatal', shot in the foot; will be by our own hand.
Walker gave Saturday’s GOP response.
His message is excellent. It gives me hope.
Pick Stephen Baldwin.
Screw everyone up.
“If he doesn’t even throw us that bone, that means he thinks he doesn’t need us. That would tell us a great deal about him.”
and what he thinks about the rest of the country :/
To obtain some credibility among conservatives, the minimum Romney can do is pick a solid conservative as Veep. Better would be to pick a set of solid conservatives and announce them as his prospective Cabinet picks.
I’d be happy with Walker as the nominee and Ryan as the VP. HOWEVER...it’ll be Mitt, and Mitt is who I’ll vote for. AB0!!!!
We have to get a conservative veep.
The left is insane and will likely never let a "president elect romney" get to the white house.
They are not going to give up power just like that, they will get violent at every imaginable level. Remember that they had EVERYTHING...the house, senate and occupied office and still could not sell their BS socialism.
They will not let their achievements in dismantling this nation be undone so easily.
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