Saturday, March 5, 2011

Governor Scott Walker for President?

scott-walker[1]If Governor Walker would become President he would join an elite group of nine Presidents.  Yes, only nine Presidents did not formally graduate from college.  They are:

George Washington
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Grover Cleveland
Harry S Truman

Scott Walker dropped out of Marquette University in Milwaukee with more than one year remaining on his degree. Scott took a full time job with the American Red Cross.  See more complete Wikipedia biography which follows:

WIKIPEDIA:   He enrolled at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986.[3] During his sophomore year, he ran for president of the student government, but lost to a write-in candidate after he was cited for campaign rules violations.[12][13] He attended college for four years, working part-time for IBM selling warranties[13] and earning a grade point average in the C's.[14] He did not complete a degree, later explaining that once he had a good job, family took precedence over getting a degree.[5] His IBM job led to a full-time position in marketing and fundraising at the American Red Cross from 1990 to 1994.[7][13]

Walker made his first try for government office in 1990, running as a Republican for Milwaukee's 7th District seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly, but lost to incumbent Democrat Gwen Moore. He was 23 years old.[15] This is the only competitive political election that Walker has lost to date.

He moved to the predominantly Republican edge city of Wauwatosa when its Assembly seat opened up in 1993,[13] winning the special election over Democrat Chris Ament, the son of then-Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament.[16] During the campaign, Walker backed welfare reform and opposed the expansion of mass transit.[17] He supported a cap on state spending and said that the law on resolving labor disputes with local government employees needed to be reformed.[17] Walker received the endorsements of Wisconsin Right to Life and The Milwaukee Sentinel, with the Sentinel calling him a fiscal conservative and noting his pro-life, tough-on-crime, and pro welfare reform positions.[2] He was re-elected four times, serving until 2002 when he became a county executive.[16]

While in the State Assembly, Walker took a special interest in criminal justice matters,[16] and chaired the Committees on Correctional Facilities, and Corrections and the Courts.[18] Over the years, he served on a number of other committees, including Health, Census and Redistricting, Financial Institutions, and Housing.[18] In 1999 he took the lead in passing a truth-in-sentencing bill that ended the practice of taking time off prisoners' sentences for good behavior.[16] In 2001, he was the lead sponsor of a bill to prevent pharmacists from being disciplined for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception.[19] He was also a strong supporter of a bill to require voters to show photo id at the polls.[16]

Milwaukee County executive

Walker at Marquette University conference, 2007

Walker became Milwaukee county executive in a special election called in April 2002, after the former county executive, Tom Ament, resigned in the wake of a county pension fund scandal.[16][20] He was elected to a four year term in 2004 gaining 57 percent of the vote to defeat former state budget director, David Riemer.[21][22] He won another four year term in 2008, defeating State Senator Lena Taylor with 59% of the vote.[23]

Walker won the office on a platform of fiscal conservatism, promising, among other things, to give back part of his own salary, and criticizing the salaries of other county workers as excessive.[24] He said his voluntary give-back gave him the moral authority to make cuts in the county budget.[24] He continued returning $60,000 annually (slightly less than half of his salary), for several years, but by 2008, he cut his give-back to $10,000 per year.[24] During his eight years in office, he never submitted a budget with a higher property tax levy than the county board had approved, he cut the number of county employees by more than 20 percent, and reduced the county's debt by ten percent.[16] However, according to the Associated Press, "overall county spending ... increased 35 percent over his tenure".[16]

Campaigns for Governor

2006 campaign

During his time as county executive, he entered the 2006 race for Wisconsin governor; becoming a candidate 21 months before the election, but dropping out after 14 months of campaigning, citing fund-raising difficulties.[20] He threw his support to fellow Republican Mark Andrew Green, who ultimately lost the election to the incumbent Democrat, Jim Doyle.[20][25]

2010 campaign

Further information: Wisconsin gubernatorial election, 2010

Walker became an early favorite for the 2010 Republican Party endorsement for Wisconsin governor, winning straw polls of Wisconsin GOP convention attendees in 2007 and 2008.[26][27] He announced his candidacy in late April 2009 after several months of previewing his campaign themes of reduced taxes and reduced spending to Republican audiences around the state.[20] He also criticized the 2009–11 Wisconsin state budget as too large for the slow economy.[20] He won the Wisconsin GOP convention endorsement on May 22, 2010, receiving 91 percent of the votes cast by the delegates. Walker won the Republican nomination in the primary election of September 14, 2010, receiving 59 percent of the popular vote, while former U.S. Representative Mark Neumann garnered 39 percent.[28]

As part of his campaign platform, Walker said he would create 250,000 jobs in his first term through a program that would include tax reforms[16] such as rolling back the 2009 state tax increases on small businesses, capital gains, and income for top earners, and cutting state employee wages and benefits to help pay for the tax cuts.[29] Critics claimed his proposals would only help the wealthy and that cutting the salaries of public employees would adversely affect state services.[29][30] Supporters said that tax cuts for businesses would reduce the cost of labor, which would ultimately promote consumer demand and more job growth. Walker indicated he would refuse an $810 million dollar award from the federal Department of Transportation to build a high speed railroad line from Madison to Milwaukee because he believed it would cost the state $7.5 million per year to operate and would not be profitable.[31] The award was later rescinded and split among other states.[32]

Social issues played a part in the campaign. Walker has stated that he is "100% pro-life",[33] meaning that he opposes abortion in all circumstances including in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.[19][34] He supports abstinence-only sex education in the public schools, and opposes state supported clinical services that provide birth control and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases to teens under the age of 18 without parental consent.[19] He supports the right of pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives on religious or moral grounds.[19][35] He supports adult stem cell research, but opposes human embryonic stem cell research.[36][16] As the election drew near, Barrett attempted to portray Walker as an extremist on social issues.[34][37]

On November 2, 2010, Walker won the general election with 52 percent of total votes cast, with his closest opponent, Democrat Tom Barrett, garnering 46 percent. His running mate, now Lieutenant Governor, was Rebecca Kleefisch, a former television news reporter in Milwaukee.

Governor of Wisconsin

Walker took the oath of office to become the 45th Governor of Wisconsin on January 3, 2011.[38][39] On January 25, 2011, the state legislature passed a series of Walker-backed bills, the largest of which would cut taxes for businesses at "a two-year cost of $67 million," according to the Associated Press.[40]

Presidents without sheepskins.

Harry Truman never attended college. 

President Cleveland dropped out of high school when his father died.  He worked as an assistant teacher for the blind.  Grover was offered a “free” college education by an elder of his church if  he would become a minister but he declined the offer.   Cleveland became a law clerk and eventually passed the bar exam.

After Andrew Johnson’s father died when he was three, the family was left penniless.  Andrew received no formal education.  His mother bound Andrew as an apprentice to a tailor.  At age 16 he ran away from the apprenticeship.  Andrew taught himself to read and write.  He married at age 18 and his wife who was two years younger taught him basic mathematics.

Abraham Lincoln –we all know that story.  Lincoln received approximately 18 months of formal instruction from itinerant teachers the rest was self-taught.

Millard Fillmore was apprenticed to a cloth maker.  Living on the frontier Millard’s only formal education was a few months at New Hope Academy.  At age nineteen became a law  clerk and would eventually become a member of the New York Bar.  A successful lawyer Fillmore founder the University of Buffalo in 1846 which became State University of New York.

Zachary Taylor was born on the frontier to rather modest farmers.  They prospered and eventually became rich Kentucky land holders.  He received little formal education except from hired tutors.  Zack disliked schooling and was a poor student.  At age 24 he accepted a commission into the army from his cousin, James Madison. He served in the Army for nearly 40 years until he formally began the campaign for nomination in 1848.

Martin Van Buren received a basic education.  Formal education ended at age 14 when he became an apprentice at a law office. Admitted to the bar at age 21.

Jackson received a sporadic education in the local "old-field" school. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local militia as a courier.  Andrew’s two brothers and his mother were all killed during the Revolutionary War.  At age 14 he was an orphan.  He worked in a saddle maker’s shop.  At age 21 was admitted to the bar.  Eventually became a county lawyer on the frontier and Solicitor for various portions of Tennessee territory.

George Washington educated in Fredericksburg, Virginia until age 15.  Further education in England or appointment to the British Navy was contemplated but did not occurred because of his father’s death.  At age 17 his brother’s in-laws secured a lucrative position for George as surveyor for Culpeper County.  Shortly thereafter, George became a lieutenant in the state militia.

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