Still proving you can't trust him
Lying is what Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R-Minimum Wage Serves No Purpose) does best. He radiates sincerity as the greasy words ooze from his pie hole.
After being elected Governor (to bring 250,000 new jobs to Wisconsin), he asked the State Legislature to reject a new contract with state employees claiming he planned on negotiating with them himself. He then proceeded to present Act 10, busting ALL of the public employee unions in Wisconsin for not just state, but local and county workers, too. And the lies just kept on coming.
It didn't take him long to prove himself a liar again.
During the re-election race that he won on Nov. 4, Gov. Scott Walker told voters he intended to spend the next four years in the statehouse.
"My plan — if the voters approve — is to serve as governor for the next four years," Walker said in early October.
It hasn't taken Walker long to consider changing this plan — and to confront the inherent challenge of a stoking interest in a potential national campaign and mollifying the mood of voters back home.
He reiterated his commitment to spend 4 years being Wisconsin's' governor during his campaign for re-election, even making a strong statement about serving a full term during the debates he had with Mary Burke a month before the election. His commitment was reported widely in state media and Wisconsin voters fell for it. Of course.
While he's still denying his Presidential ambitions to state media in Wisconsin, he's making it well known to national news sources. And his out of state visits make that even more possible. His recent trip to the Republican Governors Association gave him an excellent platform to advance his own personal political agenda.
The GOP governor is acknowledging to out-of-state media what he has mostly downplayed in Wisconsin over the past two weeks and, in some sense, the past two years: he's actively exploring whether he can run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
A Politico report Thursday laid out the contours of a potential White House bid, with a campaign headquartered in Madison and the governor asking his re-election team to stay on, including top advisers Keith Gilkes and R.J. Johnson and campaign manager Stephan Thompson.
"I think there's going to be a hunger for a leader who can actually get things done," Walker told Politico Wednesday, even as he cautioned that he hasn't firmly decided to run. "The closer I've gotten to this position, the more I've realized that anyone who really wants to be president has to be a little crazy...The only way you should run is if you feel called to."
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But when addressing Wisconsin audiences, the governor and his team have been largely trying to keep the focus off the steps he's taken since 2012 to make a presidential run possible: meeting with prominent donors, publishing a book, and speaking all around the country and in early caucus and primary states like Iowa.
Talking to reporters in Madison on Nov. 6, two days after his re-election win, Walker waved aside questions about when he would decide on a presidential run, insisting that he needed to focus on the state budget, changes to his cabinet and other issues at home.
"I'm pretty busy right now," he said two weeks ago.
Aides echoed that, at least when speaking to Wisconsin audiences.
"I think the governor has very much said that it is his intention to focus on Wisconsin and put together a bold, decisive plan," Johnson told the Journal Sentinel last week. "That's what he told the Legislature. He intends to govern."
Anyone who listened to his victory speech on election night knew it wasn't so much a victory speech, but an announcement of his candidacy to be President of the United States. His speech covered the nation and not our state. Since then, he's made himself available to national media and not state media as he has resumed his out of state travels (his schedule remains a secret). He only talks about national issues these days.
Walker hasn't dismantled his campaign staff, either. He's kept them all on - another indication that he's dead serious about running for President. And they're a skillful, well-oiled machine micro targeting voters with precision based on massive amounts of county level internal polls. They had plenty of money to create the machine necessary to provide victory for a pathological liar.
So, look for Walker to weigh in on every national issue from now to the foreseeable future to promote himself to Republican primary voters. Remind people, though, not to believe a word he says. I doubt even Scott Walker believes a word that comes out of his own mouth.
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