“Candidly, I think foreign policy is something that’s not just about having Ph.D.s, or talking to Ph.D.s – it’s about leadership.”

— Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

“Scott Walker’s early surge in the jockeying for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination reflects the belief by conservatives that he is truly one of their own and has a track record to show for it,” Reuters reports.

“But the Wisconsin governor’s rapid rise to the top of national polls of Republicans is coming at a cost. His recent verbal stumbles have made him look ill-prepared for the national spotlight and exposed his inexperience on the campaign trail.”

Nate Cohn: “On paper, he is nearly perfect, a conservative hero who fought organized labor and won, who triumphed over a labor-led recall effort and wound up winning a blue state three times in four years… But to win the nomination, Mr. Walker will need to prove as capable on the campaign trail as he is on paper.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said that “the most significant foreign policy decision of my lifetime” was Ronald Reagan’s aggressive response to an air traffic controllers strike in 1981, Vox reports.

“Forget Nixon’s outreach to China, Reagan’s defense buildup, or the Iraq war — it’s all about the firing of about 11,000 federal employees.”

“The context surrounding this quote is important. Walker had repeatedly asserted that the air traffic controllers strike was a critical foreign policy decision, arguing that it sent the Soviets a message that Reagan meant what he said. At one point, he cited Soviet documents to support his point — documents that, it turns out, were entirely made up.”

“Just weeks after traveling to London, White House hopeful and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced a nine-day, three-nation trade mission to Western Europe,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

“As a governor, Walker’s natural weak point in a potential 2016 campaign has been a lack of foreign policy experience, and his taxpayer-funded trips abroad could provide either an answer to his critics or further confirm their doubts. So far, the Walker administration has not released the cost to taxpayers of the four-day trade trip to Great Britain.”

Steve Kornacki: “Going strictly by the poll numbers, no one is off to a better start than Scott Walker. And yes, it’s easy to dismiss this — it’s so early. There were polls that showed Herman Cain ahead last time! The establishment candidate always wins in the end! But there’s also a good case to be made that it’s much more than a fleeting blip and that Walker is a genuine contender for the GOP nomination — maybe even (gulp) the favorite.”

“This is a testament both to Walker’s strengths and to the vulnerabilities of Bush, who is generally regarded as the front-runner and who is quickly establishing himself as the favorite of the party’s donor class.”

A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Gov. Scott Walker leads the 2016 Republican presidential pack with 25%, twice as high as his nearest rival.

There is a horse race for second place, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) at 13%, Ben Carson at 11%, Mike Huckabee at 11% and Jeb Bush at 10%. No other candidate is above 5% and 9% are undecided.

Key finding: “Tea Party supporters make up 32% of likely caucus-goers and Walker gets 33% of that Tea Party vote.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) frequently says he’s waiting for “God’s calling” to run for president, so he was recently asked under public records laws to provide call “a copy/transcript of all communications with God, the Lord, Christ, Jesus or any other form of deity.”

Walker’s office responded that no such records exist.

“I’m still trying to decipher if this is God’s calling. You’ve got to be crazy to want to be president of the United States. You’ve got to be crazy. To look at what it does to a person and a family, you’ve got to be crazy. But you should only do it if you feel that God’s called you to get in there and make a difference.”

— Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

First Read: “Few issues fire up a good chunk of conservatives more than personal attacks against President Obama. At the same time, these attacks also turn off swing voters and minorities that the Republican Party is trying to court. And this is the situation that Scott Walker now finds himself in, after refusing 1) to comment on Rudy Giuliani’s assertion that Barack Obama doesn’t love his country, and 2) declining to weigh in on whether Obama is a Christian. Notable conservatives have cheered Walker’s rhetoric and blasted the media for asking these types of questions…. Yet other conservative writers, like Matt Lewis, argue that this rhetoric is only going to alienate other voters… What’s more, as Democrat Robert Gibbs said on ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday, if you’re stirring up controversies on the EASY questions, think what happens when they become HARDER as a presidential candidate.”

“Here’s the thing about playing with fire: Sometimes you frighten your opposition by doing something they couldn’t do — or ever dream to do. Other times, you get burned.”

“It was a memorable political ad: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin spoke directly into the camera in a 30-second spot last fall and called abortion an ‘agonizing’ decision. He described himself as pro-life but, borrowing the language of the abortion rights movement, pointed to legislation he signed that leaves ‘the final decision to a woman and her doctor,'” the New York Times reports.

“That language was gone when Mr. Walker met privately with Iowa Republicans in a hotel conference room last month, according to a person who attended the meeting. There, he highlighted his early support for a ‘personhood amendment,’ which defines life as beginning at conception and would effectively prohibit all abortions and some methods of birth control.”

“The anti-union law passed here four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative than many had predicted,” the Washington Post reports.

“Walker had vowed that union power would shrink, workers would be judged on their merits, and local governments would save money. Unions had warned that workers would lose benefits and be forced to take on second jobs or find new careers.”

“Many of those changes came to pass, but the once-thriving ­public-sector unions were not just shrunken — they were crippled.”