President. Betterrnors make president s . Our phone lines are open to you. Republicans can call at 2025853881. 5853880. At 202 if youre outside the u. S. , it is 2025853883. You can also catch up with us on your favorite social media pages. A very good saturday morning. We want to start off with those comments by wisconsin Governor Scott walker. He made them to the Washington Post tv website. We will play you a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] historically americans like to see chief executives become the top cheap executive top chief executive. As governors we have to make decisions that are similar to what the president makes. I dont think any republican should get ahead of the curve and Start Talking about a future election. 2014 is the time we have a for us tois the time show we can lead. Host that was scott walker. We want to hear from you. Do governors make better presidency echo our phone minds better president s . Our phone lines are open. This is from the left or center from the rutgers center. About 40 of all those who served as president served as governors before hand. On Vice President s, 15 previously served as governor, 32 served as nongovernor and other positions. Of those men who served as governor, they include hummus jefferson, james monroe include thomas jefferson, james monroe, martin van buren, john tyler, james k. Polk, Andrew Johnson the, rutherford b. Williamrover cleveland, mckinley, theodore roosevelt, franklinolidge, roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, though clinton, and george w. Bush read that you faxed coming for you in this and george w. Bush. Plenty of facts coming for you. This was a subject taken up by the Financial Times by eric pinion. He writes the story goes on to note we are asking you if you think governors make better president s. We want to hear your possible pick for a 2016 candidate. We will start with josh coming in from West Virginia on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Honestly i believe that anybody can take the job up and do a good job. Former government former governors tend to do better. Host why caller do you think that is . There is why do you think that is . Ofler there is a lot leadership. Who better than a former governor trying to run 50 states . They already know what it takes to do that job. Who would be your 2016 pick . Caller im hillary all the way. Comment,ther recent this by House Majority whip, Kevin Mccarthy of california. He said back in november that was Kevin Mccarthy appearing on msnbc back in november, the end of last year. We want to hear from our viewers. You governors make better presidency echo lets go to kim calling in from wisconsin on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I dont believe governors make better president s. I lived with this man half my life. Do not hire him when he runs for president. Host you are talking about Governor Scott walker . Caller yes. I dont think that is true. I think it takes an intelligent person who truly cares about the people, whether it is in their state or in the country. Statet happens in one does affect the other state. Thate may not realize that it does paid our taxes go to other states to fix things. Take a person who really cares they do not have to be a governor. Where half of the earlier president s governors before they became president s . I dont think so. Please have a wonderful day. Host thanks for the call. End recent comments at the of last month from governor the headline from the american prospect closed quote merican prospect joe was waiting on our independent line from texas. Good morning. Caller i do believe governors make good president s. Look at what we have in there now. No business experience, no common experience. Senator does not make you a good president. Look at the mess we have now. That thelieve governors do make they have a lot of experience. They pull for the military, not the Gay Community at large. The president we have now is worse than jimmy carter and nixon combined. Cuts joe manchin possible to the military. Here is a headline on that subject from the wall street journal this morning. Some news on that subject for those interested in military pay issue. In the next 35 minutes or so we are asking about whether governors make better president s. We want to get your thoughts. Thats go to glenn in lakeland, florida. Go to glenn in lakeland, florida. About this is not whether governors make a better president s, this is about ideology. This is in regards to the fact that republicans did not have a candidate in 2016 to run against hillary clinton. This is not about whether governors make better president s. If you look at the last republican president and then look at Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan is who started this trickle down economics theory and let the country to the recession we are in now. The next republican governor, george bush, exploded the economy and to look at where we sit. They also want they are also responsible for the war we have been having in this country. That is the situation we are in. The idea that a governor makes it better president is false. The republicans do not have a candidate. They dont have one, they are looking for one. It has nothing to do with whether governors make better president s. Glen calling in from florida. Some stats from the eagles institute, 17 president s were governor before they became president s. And finally in 1981 when Ronald Reagan followed jimmy carter. The nations governors are descending on washington for the annual winter meeting of the national. Overnors association the Washington Post notes that association has been a organization some of the activity surrounding the winter meeting of the Governors Association president obama statementsntss from that meeting some quotes and stories from the Washington Post preview of the meeting that is kicking off today here in washington dc. We are asking our viewers if governors make better president s. We will go to chet waiting in wisconsin on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have lived in wisconsin for some time. We have the most polarizing person as our governor. If your viewers would ever see what he has done to destroy the from destroy he is araderie despicable governor here. Governor walker facing some fallout this week over a pair of investigations about his and ius Campaign Actions want to bring and jason stein, the capitol reporter with the milwaukee journal sentinel. We appreciate you coming out. Talk about these investigations. What is Governor Walker actually facing and what has been the fallout . A, a seriesve had series have a had a series of investigations into the formal aids of the governor. A former aides of the governer. In the appeal of one of the aides that were convicted of propertyng on public in milwaukee, where scott walker served as a leader, there were 27,000 pages of emails from this former aide released. Reporters have been going , looking forward that says about the way the governor ran his milwaukee cant his Milwaukee Office and host what is the potential fallout . What are we looking at down the road . Is one investigation work investigation more worrisome than another . Guest the 2010 investigation is closed and that is the one the emails are coming from. The charge is that prosecutors charges file the that prosecutors chose to file is still on file. Obviously theres not going to from these emails criminal charges. So far there has not been anything to show that the governor did anything illegal. One thing that no campaign ever have 30,000 pages of internal emails released. Obviously there have been some things the governor would rather not see, racist jokes made by former aides, suggestions that known more about your legal campaigning that was being done by former aides that he has said. He said he knew nothing about it and had a zero tolerance policy for it. These dont appear to be the allegationstating that have come out in other places, like new jersey. Stein is a capital reporter with the milwaukee journal capital; milwaukee journal sentinel. What has scott walker said in response to the news this week here is a story from the journal sentinel talking about the governors comments yesterday. Are you still with us . Storieses, one of our looked at the fact that we caught up with the governor out in d. C. At the national Governors Association. The time he denied knowing anything excuse me, rather he did not say whether he had used a secret email system that had been set up. With a routerstem and Internet Connection set up in his office that was used by former aides to do activity they would rather not have the public , such as sending out fundraising emails and things like that. This was a parallel system that for staying off the county internet system so that it would not be subject to open records requests from orders like myself. Say if he used that system. Host we have been talking about whether governors make better president s. Scott walker has been mentioned in relation to 2016. What has this week meant for his possible hopes for 2016 . Obviously he is also up for reelection in 2014. The kinds ofay revelations we have seen would be ultimately crippling. I think the public can have difficulty grasping and relating of violatings Campaign Finance laws. It is a rather arcane part of the law. I think most of these allegations were public during the 2012 recall campaign. Thegovernor certainly faced most extreme scrutiny i have ever seen a candidate in wisconsin face. It was scrutiny that would only be topped by the scrutiny you would see in a president ial race in the United States. Those were not decisive allegations. He still prevailed. It remains to be seen. Time a race for president is different than anything else. It is the difference between bringing someone home to meet your parents we will see. Thank you so much for joining us on washington journal today. We have about 25 minutes or so. We are talking with our viewers about governors make better president s. You can join that conversation at cspan wj. Someone writes in. Someone writes we want to hear your comments on our phone line. Good morning. Good morning. I dont think they necessarily do. I think you can put somebody on the street also money from the street with a modicum of intelligence and they will do just as good of a job as governor. As good a job as a governor. Somebodyike to see with Elizabeth Warren and alan grayson. That would be my dream team right there. They dont seem to be corruptible. That is more important to me than anything else. A little bit more from the gers institute of politics lets go to sheila in the florida. Governors make better president s . Not necessarily. I am considering our current president. I was born in 1939. I have three children and eight grandchildren. I am here to get some wisdom. When what if we got the diesdent when gratitude on the altar of the nations heart he is wellnigh hopeless. We need to nurture and uplift our president. I have seen a lot of president s but i have never seen anything experiencedhad since president obama became president. To combat all this negative energy i am going to praise the president for his love of country and people, for his love of knowledge and intelligence. He is appreciative of our diversity of cultures. And he stays calm under pressure. Called no drama obama. He is an example. Talking aboutlso 2016 this morning. Who do you like in 2016 e echo like in 2016 . Caller stop. Stop jumping ahead. It is one big election all the time. Lets just wait. There may be somebody in the wings who you never heard of who will go right to the top. Sheila calling in from our line calling in from florida on our line for independents. Next caller is coming in. Caller i like with that lady just said a little bit. Of course governors make better president s. Experience. Ecutive senator barack obama didnt have that. Be held accountable for the decisions they make. When you are a legislator like obama was, he was just one vote in many. He could ask that he could escape accountability. Barack obama is a good lesson on why you might not want somebody who only has legislative president. Being your you might want somebody who has been a governor of a successful state, not somebody who has been a governor of illinois or new york. Do not consider andrew cuomo. You want somebody who runs a successful state. He is not all complicated. Less is more and simplified. I like that in a governor. Host we want to update our viewers on international news. Front page of the wall street journal closed quote of the wall street journal heres the latest updates from the Associated Press this morning that is the latest update from the Associated Press. We will stay on top of the development there. We will have a full segment on mondays washington journal. Todays Washington Post on the subject that is the lead editorial if you want to read more there on the the Washington Post. We want to talk about this question we have been asking viewers, do governors make toter presidency echo original statement that started this question coming from Governor Scott walker, paul was on our line for democrats. God help america if walker becomes president. This guy turned on surplus money to have highspeed rails from madison to milwaukee. If you wouldve taken that surplus money when obama did the surplus, we had highspeed rails from madison to wisconsin. He is a joker. Think governors and general make better presidency echo that are president s . Better president s . Scott walker talked about a leadership experience of being a chief executive, something that is important for the presidency. I agree with that, clinton was a great president. Of walker is a disaster. Walker becomes president , kiss Social Security and medicare goodbye. That is what republicans think. Robert inill go to illinois on our line for independents. What you think of governors serving as presidency echo as president s . Cspan. Org caller based on the track record of george bush and barack obama, it is a relevant. Guaranteed 1guys trillion to General Motors and the banks. These parties were responsible for a the problems we had. I believe bill clinton was a pretty good president. Bush was pretty terrible and obama is terrible. Obama and bush had absolutely no regard for the consumer. General motors and the pigs get all the money from the taxpayer. It is ok for the banks to spend all that money on unwise financial investments. Back and get another loan from the government. That is pretty much it. Host on some of the Financial Issues that you bring up, some news on that front. Here is the Washington Post again that is in the Washington Post closed quote today. Here is from the business section of the New York Times this morning the documents will most likely prompt a fresh examination of the decisions made in that crisis year. Another story talks about how janet yellen came across those documents that were released on friday. The headline more on that in the New York Times this morning. Talkve 15 minutes left to about this subject of governors and whether they make better president s or not. We will go to a waiting in michigan on our line for republicans. Caller good morning. I almost think it is a prerequisite for a potential president to serve time as a governor. Sometimes it doesnt prove to be successful but it still should be a prerequisite. The president is driving us into debt. Just unbelievable. 17 trillion is the turnaround. Them and say, you are the same people that put us 17 trillion in debt and you are criticizing this guy for paying 50 billion on olympics. Host any concern that doing that would limit the pool of be elected could president , or do you think the experience from that trumps the limiting of the pool . Caller i think limiting the pool is a good thing. Up k putting a gazebo if he is a good con artist and he can win, that is bad. I think we should limit the pool to proven employees, more or less. Any concern those people could become a governor of a state and meet that prerequisite . Caller that can happen, also. Everything is infallible. At least you can try to make it a little tougher for them to get the job and prove that they can do the job and to the job. Obama is a community organizer. He gets into the white house. That is what we have right now. We have to write out the storm. More from rutgers, the eagle institute. Nationals that have been held to date, a governor has captured the president ial nomination 55 time. Of those, 27 were eventually elected as president and 24 were defeated. 17 president s had been elected governor before but some of those running for reelection and winning those nominations as well. I also want to point out this the. We welcomed welcomed the naacps president. She talked about whether the Obama Administration has done enough to help africanamericans. Here is what she had to say. [video clip] are looking much more strategically. I think the president realizes that the Africanamerican Community has been it at rock of support for his administration, absolute in a bed rock been a bedrock of support for his administration. I think he is looking at a more strategic way of how he can make an impact on the ,fricanamerican community both with employment and health care. X are you saying the white , are you saying the white house are you saying the white house has not