Gov. Walker Touts Rank as Eagle Scout as His Leading Qualification for Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America

MADISON, Wis. — In his teen years in the 1980s, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. At a luncheon in Arizona on Wednesday, recorded by the group American Bridge, Walker used his attainment of the highest rank a Boy Scout can achieve to answer the the question, “…does the prospect of being commander in chief daunt you?”

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, “Kudos to Gov. Walker for, as a teen, achieving the highest ranking possible for a Boy Scout. But let’s be honest, that does not qualify him to be the commander-in-chief of the United States military.”

According to a video of the event captured by American Bridge, the final question of the event posed to Walker was, “…does the prospect of being commander in chief daunt you?” In a meandering response to a question he called “appropriate” Walker said, “As a kid I was in scouts. And one of the things I’m proudest of when I was in Scouts is I earned the rank of Eagle. Being an Eagle Scout is one of the few things you get as a kid that you are not the past, it’s something you are …”

As he traverses the country in pursuit of his 2016 political ambitions, Walker’s lack of foreign policy experience and knowledge of foreign affairs has been the subject of criticism, even from fellow Republicans.

Ross noted this is not the first time Walker has made an overreach that would be laughable were he not among the leading contenders for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination. Prior to touting his Boy Scout bona fides as qualifying him to make decisions to send U.S. troops into combat, Walker said he was equipped to take on foreign policy threats because he took on people in Wisconsin, who he equated to terrorists and despots, for publicly expressing disagreement with his stripping of 175,000 workers of their rights in their workplaces.

He concluded, “If you need to compare the citizens of your state whom you’ve attacked with your policies to terrorists and despots or rely on an achievement of your teen years as the leading qualification to serve as the commander in chief, it might be time to rethink your fitness for the office of the President of the United States of America.”