Governor Scott Walker is downplaying his interest in running for president in 2016 even as he tells prominent Republicans that governors are best suited to hold the nation's highest office. When national pundits name the likely Republican candidates for President in 2016, Walker makes some lists and not others. But at a recent speech to a Republican audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, it was Walker who volunteered that presidents should be vice presidents or governors first. "And it's why up until the 2008 election, the last member of Congress we had elected to the Presidency was 1960 with John F. Kennedy," he said. "There've been plenty that tried throughout there, but I think in the end, Americans understand that more often than not, not just based on party, you're better off with someone who's been proven and tested as a chief executive." Walker's not the first to make this suggestion, but his circumstances are different than most. His Congressional delegation includes Republican Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate, and a possible presidential candidate for 2016. Asked about his comments in California, Walker called Ryan "one of the few exceptions" he'd make to his rule. "But I still generally believe, not because of any foreshadowing or anything like that, but I just think that in general, you look at both parties, I mean Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, you look down the line, and a lot of the folks who've been good Presidents have been Governors because they had that executive experience before," he says. Walker says he's worked too hard and too long to be Governor to worry about anything else right now. But he told Politico in June he'd like to play a bigger role in national politics.
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