"Scott Walker opens up about White House ambitions."

Headline at Politico. Walker was pushed on the question because he visited Iowa. His response was: "I guess the only thing I’d say is I’m not ruling it out."

He's got to win a second term as governor first (in 2014). Do people hold that against a governor — the anticipation that he's going to go off running for President? Or do they kind of like it? Obviously, his opponents will use it against him. They'll use anything against him.

... Walker would begin the early jockeying of the 2016 race without the buzz of a Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or mega-fundraising base of a Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. He’ll need to work the cattle call and TV talk show circuit hard to win support....

Politico observes that Walker is "a white male at a time when some Republicans think they’re all but doomed if they don’t add some diversity to their ticket in 2016." Walker's response:

“If that happened it would be great, but we’re not the party of silos,” said Walker of having a minority carry the GOP banner. “Any of the reaction, or overreaction, to what happened in November shouldn’t be driven by, ‘There’s a set formula that we’ve got to flip on this issue, flip on that issue, put a couple people on [the ticket] who look differently.”

But Walker, 45, used the question about diversity to note that the Republican challenge isn’t merely that it’s a party dominated by white males.

“It goes to old white guys” he said, adding: “I’m not an old white guy.”

At least I'm not an old white guy.... Walker notes that the Democrats are going to be looking at old faces. He mentions Clinton and Biden and calls them "people from a bygone generation of politics." Being a "fresh face" is a little like being "ethnically a minority," and "Ideas matter more." The GOP, he says, need "someone who’s optimistic, relevant and courageous." Those 3 adjectives sound like his pitch for himself.

“We need to talk about things that people are talking about – not sequesters, not fiscal cliffs, not monthly jobs reports,” said Walker, an argument that has become fashionable in the ranks of GOP governors since last fall’s election results and the drumbeat of stories since about Washington’s gridlocked politics....

Entitlement reform and the long-term debt, for example, should be put in terms grandparents and their grandchildren can understand, he said: how bringing down spending will ultimately improve the economy so future generations may find better job prospects and enjoy a better quality of life.

“Put things in those terms and then I think you make it a moral, not just a fiscal, issue,” he said. “People want to act on it.”

Walker showed little interest in discussing the culture wars and particularly gay marriage, something the governor acknowledges those same future generations feel differently about than their elders.

“I do think it’s generational,” he said about views on gay rights, calling younger Americans “more open and accepting on that issue.”

But he also called its importance among youth “overblown” and said he still opposes same-sex marriage....

Also, Walker spoke at CPAC this morning:

“This president and his allies measure success in government by how many people are dependent on the government. We measure success in government by just the opposite: by how many people are no longer dependent on the government,” Walker said to rousing applause. “Because we understand in this country that the American dream is not to grow up one day and depend on the American government, it’s about empowering people through the dignity of work.”