Walker's Legacy for a 2016 Run?

Wisconsin Governor Walker enacted budget reforms which protected employees' paychecks and curbed the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions. Despite the massive protests in the state capital, and the flight of resistant Democratic lawmakers, the governor and his legislature persevered.  His policies saved school districts and cities millions of dollars without tax increases or layoffs. The pension obligations of the Dairy State are not milking the state coffers the way entitlements are pillaging larger states like Illinois and California.

Walker’s recall opponent could not criticize his reforms, since they assisted his own governance in the city of Milwaukee. Throughout the recall campaign, Walker refused to engage in name-calling and demagoguery. He outlined a positive vision of a recovering Wisconsin based on individual enterprise and limited government instead of state dependence and expanding state power.

Walker won his second gubernatorial election in two years, the second by a greater margin than the first. Walker’s political fundraising and outreach has established a Republican Party base in a Progressive-Blue state, turning into a Purple Swing-State which may determine future national elections, including his own. He is pressing for expanded mining rights and lower income tax rates. Governor Walker leads from his head and his heart. He says what he means, and he means it when he does it.  He is battle-tested and unafraid to confront conflict while refusing to neglect compromise in the best interests of the state. Walker would be a formidable force in 2016, if not the Republican Presidential  nominee.