With this week’s release of Gov. Scott Walker’s book, “Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge,” and the subsequent media tour, many people are weighing in on what’s in store for Walker’s political future.
Walker told the Wisconsin State Journal earlier this week that the book isn't a campaign book leading to a 2016 presidential bid. However, he has repeatedly refused to say he will fulfil his entire second term as governor if reelected next year. Furthermore, he insists that the Republican nominee be a Washington, D.C., outsider and a governor.
Beloit College political science Georgia Duerst-Lahti believes Walker might be preparing to enter the race.
“I have published many times the full election cycle of a president, and he is certainly doing everything at this stage of a presidential election cycle that would suggest he’s trying to be a candidate,” said Duerst-Lahti on Friday’s “Week in Review” segment. “He won’t say that he’s going to be a candidate at this point because partly, he’s testing the waters right now.”
Duerst-Lahti, a liberal, said the book and media tour are typical ways for potential candidates to get attention. She also noted that they follow the hells of him being out of state doing national fundraisers instead of staying in Wisconsin.
“If (Walker's) not trying to be president, then he should get back here and be governor more,” Duerst-Lahti said.
Conservative blogger and journalist Steve Prestegard agreed with Duerst-Lahti somewhat.
“(Walker) might want to run for president,” said Prestegard. “I actually don’t think he’s going to run for president.”
He dismissed the significance of the book and media appearances as presidential fodder because he said that’s simply what authors tend to do. He said there’s better evidence that points to Walker not getting in the race.
“The chance of anybody from the state of Wisconsin ever being elected president is absolutely, positively zero,” said Prestegard. “There’s not a single person in Wisconsin politics who can raise enough money to make a credible run for president.”
Prestegard added that former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the longest-serving governor in state history, entered the 2008 presidential sweepstakes and dropped out four months later.
“If somebody like (Thompson) is unable to do it, Walker certainly is not because he doesn’t have the kind of personal wealth and he doesn’t have the kind of connections to be able to do it,” said Prestegard.
