Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, said in an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday that his recent fight against public unions in Wisconsin had prepared him to confront Islamic State (Isis) fighters in Iraq and Syria, should he seek and win the US presidency in the 2016 election. 
 
 “I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to make sure the threat from Islamic terrorists will not show up on our soil,” Walker said. “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.” 
 
 Right-to-work bill passes Wisconsin Senate on way to desk of Scott Walker Read more 
 
 Walker faced a recall election after signing legislation that stripped public unions of collective bargaining rights and curtailed public pensions. The unions bill has involved a dramatic fight, with thousands having taken to the streets of the state capital to protest against the action. 
 
 Also speaking at the conference on Thursday were Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, and Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, but Walker was the only potential candidate directly encouraged by the crowd to run for president. 
 
 “Run Scott Run! Run Scott Run!” the audience interrupted him to shout at one point. 
 
 He responded by saying: “I did run three times in the last four years, so I’m getting used to it,” referring to his recall election win and his re-election in November 2014. 
 
 While Walker has formed a committee to explore a presidential run, he has not declared his candidacy. Yet he did not seek to a correct a questioner who asked him what he would do to take on Isis “should you become commander-in-chief”. 
 
 “For a number of years I’ve been concerned about that threat, not only abroad but right here on American soil,” Walker said, explaining that as governor, he receives regular updates about security threats. 
 
 After his speech, Walker said his comparison of confronting unions and a potential confrontation with Isis had been misinterpreted. 
 
 “Let me be perfectly clear, I’m just pointing out the closest thing I have to handling this difficult situation is the 100,000 protesters I had to deal with,” Walker told the Wisconsin State Journal. 
 
 He said he did not regret his statement. ||||| Scott Walker for president? 
 
 Asked whether he was considering a run for president in 2016 Sunday, the Republican governor from Wisconsin said he believed “governors make much better presidents than members of Congress.” 
 
 Governors offer a “fresh approach,” with “executive experience from outside of Washington to provide a much better alternative to the old, tired, top-down approach out of Washington, D.C,” Walker said, adding, “We need something fresh, organic from the bottom up – and that’s what you get in the states.” 
 
 Chuck Todd also asked the governor whether he'd deferred to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), considered to be a possible presidential candidate since his run for vice president in 2012. 
 
 “I love Paul Ryan. I’ve said many times before I’ll be the president of the Paul Ryan fan club, but I do think if we’re going to beat Hillary Clinton in this next election, we’re going to have a message that says Hillary Clinton is all about Washington,” Walker said. 
 
 Responding later, Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin said, “we’re thrilled that Governor Walker thinks Republicans should run for president on the record of GOP governors,” calling that “wing of the GOP…every bit as broken and dysfunctional as the congressional wing of the party.” 
 
 Under Walker, Wisconsin “lags the country in job growth,” Czin said. And pointing to other GOP governors, he added, “Chris Christie’s policies have led to a record number of credit downgrades, and nearly one in five live in poverty in Rick Perry’s Texas.” 
 
 Read more about: Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, 2016 Elections, 2014 Elections ||||| Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Sunday stopped short of saying he would run for president in 2016, adding that he wouldn't bet against it. 
 
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 "After three elections for governor in four years in a state that hasn’t gone Republican since 1984 for president, I wouldn’t bet against me on anything," he said on ABC News’s "This Week." 
 
 Walker emerged as the leading Republican candidate in a recent poll of likely Iowa Republican voters, with 15 percent support, ahead of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R). 
 
 Walker said Romney's decision to drop out of the 2016 race to make room for other candidates was a recognition of the need for "new, fresh leadership with big, bold ideas, and the courage to act on it." 
 
 He also took a swipe at likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 
 
 "And if we’re going to take on a name from the past, which is likely to be former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I think for the party we need a name from the future," he said. 
 
 Walker also painted Clinton as a creature of Washington, part of a big government, "top-down" approach to governing. 
 
 "Former Secretary of State Clinton embodies all the things that we think of Washington. She lives here, she’s worked here, she’s been part of the Washington structure for years," he said. 
 
 American voters "don’t want to go back in time, they don’t want to repeat what we’ve had in the past," he said. "We need a candidate not of the 20th century, but of the 21st century." 
 
 Walker also responded to recent comments by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who may also be considering a 2016 presidential bid. The Florida Republican said governors lack foreign policy experience. 
 
 Walker said he met this weekend with former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and Madeleine Albright. He said that, as governor, he receives risk assessments from the FBI and his adjutant general on threats in his own state and across the nation. 
 
 Walker said he thought the U.S. should "take the fight to" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and any other radical Islamic terrorist around the world. 
 
 "I think anywhere and everywhere, we have to … go beyond just aggressive air strikes. We have to look at other surgical methods. And ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground if that’s what it takes," he said. 
 
 On immigration, Walker said the U.S. needed to secure its borders and enforce the legal system, but said he was not advocating deportation. 
 
 "We’ve got to have a healthy balance. We’re a country both of immigrants and of laws. We can’t ignore the laws in this country, can’t ignore the people who come in, whether it’s from Mexico or Central America," he said. 
 
 "We need to find a way for people to have a legitimate legal immigration system in this country, and that does not mean amnesty."
– For the special few among us who were breathlessly awaiting the 2014 election so that we could get down to seriously speculating about the presidential election that is now two years away, well, Scott Walker has you covered. The newly re-elected Wisconsin governor is seriously flirting with a run for the White House, and he's not shy about it, reports Politico. Asked whether he'd bow out if fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan sought the Oval Office, Walker responded that "governors make much better presidents than members of Congress. I love Paul Ryan. I’ve said many times before I’ll be the president of the Paul Ryan fan club, but I do think if we’re going to beat Hillary Clinton in this next election, we’re going to have a message that says Hillary Clinton is all about Washington." Walker said governors combine "executive experience from outside of Washington" with a "fresh approach," concluding "we need something fresh, organic from the bottom up—and that’s what you get in the states." More from today's Sunday dial: Darrell Issa on ISIS and Iraq: Baghdad is "still quite delusional" in its lackadaisical approach to fighting ISIS. "They're still talking about long-term training before they're ready to fight." Cory Gardner, Republican senator-elect in Colorado: "The mandate was this: People don’t like dysfunction, they don’t like gridlock." The new GOP majority in the Senate, he says, will need to govern with "competence" and "maturity." Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush is handicapping brother Jeb's chances of deciding to make a 2016 run.