Scott Walker forms committee for presidential bid

Walker filed papers to set up the committee, called "Our American Revival," and a new Web site for the organization was scheduled to go live later Tuesday. The steps come after a busy weekend of pre-presidential events that included his address at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a later appearance at a gathering in California hosted by the billionaire Koch brothers and a stopover in Denver for additional fundraising. "Our American Revival encompasses the shared values that make our country great; limiting the powers of the federal government to those defined in the Constitution while creating a leaner, more efficient, more effective and more accountable government to the American people," Walker said in a statement in the release announcing the committee. Walker's steps come at a time when other prospective candidates are making similar moves in what has quickly become the largest prospective field of Republican candidates and the most wide open nomination contest in the modern history of the party. The governor's Iowa speech helped establish him more firmly in a presidential field that includes bigger names like former Florida governor Jeb Bush and possibly Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 nominee, as well as bigger personalities like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, veterans of past presidential campaigns and newcomers with specific appeal to the parts of the GOP's conservative base.

If you're not sure Walker is really a top-tier candidate, check out the results of the poll they did over at Hot Air last week. Not only did Walker finish first by a nose over Ted Cruz when participants were asked who their first choice was, he also easily won the poll for second choice.

We've been talking about Walker here a lot lately, and I can understand why some might think we're "endorsing" him - whatever that even means. Honestly, Herman, Rob and I don't usually check with each other when we pick our topics, and we've never had a "let's push Scott Walker" discussion. But we've all written glowingly about him in recent days, partly because he did so well in Iowa and partly because I think we also see him as exemplifying the type of candidate we'd like to see, which is:

• Someone with a track record of governing effectively and getting very positive results.
• Someone who has put conservative policy ideas into practice and made them work, and work well.
• Someone who has proven he won't shrink from a fight with liberal interests, and not only that, but knows how to win those fights.

I would really enjoy watching Hillary try to make the case that her track record is anywhere near as impressive as Walker's. I would enjoy that very much. The three of us actually had a little discussion over e-mail this morning about how he comes across on stage. Herman gave him an A for content and a B for delivery. I responded with my usual complete lack of patience for anyone who cares about delivery or "optics," which prompted Rob to remind me that optics matter whether we like it or not - which I don't. Beyond Walker, I think we all have other candidates we might like as well - although I'm not sure all three of us would have the same list. But he's near the top of all of ours, and from what I've been seeing the last few days, he's near the top of a lot of other people's too. Two questions: 1. I'm seeing a lot of conservatives complaining that Walker is a squish on immigration, but a) I'm not sure what that's based on; and b) can someone explain me why, even if his position is not quite the same as yours, that would be anyone's dealbreaker when you look at his overall very conservative and very successful governing record? I don't get this as a litmus test for conservatives, but boy some of you are becoming as one-issue about immigration as abortion-is-all-I-care-about people. What's that all about? 2. Walker is an evangelical Christian but he talks a lot more about economic issues - and he's starting to talk more about national security - than about the kinds of social issues that evangelical voters supposedly vote on, like abortion, gay marriage, etc. Faith voters, let me hear from you: Are you more inclined to back someone like Santorum or Huckabee because they talk about that stuff more? By the way, I do have one very serious problem with Walker. I think he could be a great president, but that does not give him license any more than any of those other moldy cheese people to mess with my Vikings. When it's the ObamaCare repeal bill, yeah, then you can write on that. Leave our stadium alone, bro.