That says less about Walker than his opponents. Has there ever been an attempted recall of a governor based on him signing a law they didn’t like? It was purely a special interest reaction to a law that affected their interests and the public reacted accordingly.
I dare say that without the labor overreaction Walker might not have been reelected. Sometimes it pays to have a lot of enemies, if your enemies are the right enemies.
And Virginia used to be the ‘cradle of Presidents’ but there’s been a bit of a lag time there, too. 
I’m gonna go ahead and write off the Governors Most Americans Haven’t Heard Of brigade - Kasich, Pence (IN), Snyder (MI). Say ‘hi’ to T-Paw, y’all. Donors and primary voters alike are much more likely to default to Jeb or Mitt than to one of these guys.
The National Journal interviewed Rubio. The lede:
He’s just gotta decide whether it makes more sense to pursue his agenda by running for President, or running for another Senate term? (FL is a state where you can’t do both simultaneously.) Of course, if he ran for the nomination unsuccessfully, he’d still probably have time after being an also-ran in IA and NH to switch gears and run for a second Senate term.
I think it’s all moot, though: Jebbie’s gonna suck up all his oxygen.
But Carly Fiorina’s apparently running. Can you feel the excitement?
Marcy Wheeler (aka “emptywheel”) tweeted: “Is today day we vote on which former GOP Presidential Reality Show contestant we’d like to come back? Does Pat Buchanan count?”
I think Marcy’s got the right attitude.
If Rubio runs for President with Jeb in the race he’s an idiot. If Jeb runs, and probably even if he doesn’t, Rubio should be running to succeed Rick Scott in 2018.
There was a brief period when Rubio would have been considered a frontrunner but right now he’s sort of occupying a transitional space between Tea Partier and establishment Republican and is neither side’s top choice. Actually governing a large state like Florida would give voters a better idea of who this guy is and whether he’s up to the job. Plus the 2016 field is loaded, whereas the 2024 field may not be.
What, not California to run for Barbara Boxer’s seat?
C’mnon, guy, let’s put some miles on that campaign-prop pickup truck!
Actually, what he should have done all along is just challenge Warren in a midterm year, which would be the next time she’s up for reelection.
I want to see Brown run and lose in as many states as possible. I don’t know what the record is, but doggone he has a real chance to set the all time mark.
He would not beat Warren. I don’t care if it a midterm year, MA will not elect another Republican Senator.
What baggage? She was First Lady to a popular and successful POTUS whose Admin is still remembered fondly.
The baggage is the (D) after her name, apparently.
Of those, only Jeb is electable, the others have too much baggage.
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I’d say just the opposite is true. Jeb has the baggage of being a Bush, just as Hilary has the baggage of being a Clinton, along with her other baggage.
So did Mitch Daniels, when he was Governor. It did not translate to a Presidential bid, although it would be nice to see him change his mind in 2016. I see Walker as VP material - hopefully Romney-Walker will be preparing for the inauguration in two years.
Much of my support for Romney last time, and hopes for his future, come from his selection of a VP last run. I didn’t necessarily agree with the whole budget Ryan put together, but I saw from Romney choosing him that it was going to be a serious campaign about serious issues, not one purely political based on picking someone pretty for the second slot. I am hoping Romney does the same this time, along with hopes that he will run at all, and win.
But I don’t think Jeb has a chance. I am a pretty mainstream Republican, and the first thing that I think of when considering Jeb Bush is not any of his qualifications - it is just that he is another Bush. And viscerally, a father and son is enough, even apart from everything else. Another son would be overkill. Maybe that’s not fair to Jeb, who ought to be judged on his own merits, but there it is.
I don’t think Christie will play in Peoria. The various manufactured scandals don’t worry me - anyone in NJ is going to get those from the East Coast establishment liberals. He can garner a 53% approval rating in NJ after all that, that is an indication that the mud isn’t sticking to any appreciable degree. Likewise for Walker, but Walker’s appeal in the Midwest I expect to translate better away from the East Coast.
I am no kind of a prognosticator in politics, and much of this is wishful thinking, but there are a number of viable Republican candidates, and I have not heard anything from the anti-Republican fanatics on the SDMB that I think would resonate with the moderates, let alone the GOP base.
Regards,
Shodan
False equivalence. Hillary is associated with a successful POTUS and Jeb is . . . not.
I am afraid I don’t agree that being associated with Slick Willie and his various lies and scandals is a net plus for Hilary.
Feel free to kick off another round of “didnotdidnotdidnotdidnotdidnot”, but the US electorate is not like the SDMB.
Regards,
Shodan
Bill Clinton’s favorability ratings are incredibly high. In this case, I think the SDMB is pretty close to the US.
No doubt that’s why she was so successful in 2008.
Regards,
Shodan
She wasn’t a successful SoS at that point. Never mind that Obama was hard to beat. Romney and McCain couldn’t do it.
And a lot of Americans still feel that way; but practically none of them would ever vote for a Democrat anyway, so it doesn’t matter electorally. Most Americans recall the Clinton years with, for the most part, aching nostalgia.
Funny that he could never get a majority of the vote, then.
Regards,
Shodan
Had she won the nomination, she almost certainly would have been. But I’ll take this as an admission that you understand that Bill Clinton is extremely popular in the US.
Right – he’s much more popular now than he was when he ran for office.
I’m sure this is tough for you to accept, but Bill Clinton is an extremely popular ex-President.
Epic lamefail, Sho. Embarrassing. C’mon, you can grasp better than that!
I am basically a democrat, but appreciated Jeb when I was in FL and he was the Gov. I even met him at a good old fashioned BBQ for his brother. I made a delivery for the company where I worked and stayed for some BBQ chicken.