By Patrick O'Connor
LAS VEGAS--Three prominent Republican governors eying potential
White House bids in 2016 made the case Saturday for the U.S. to
play an outsize role on the world stage.
In an early audition for some of the GOP's most prominent
donors, Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, John Kasich of Ohio and
Scott Walker of Wisconsin endorsed the party's traditionally
hawkish view of a strong national defense.
"When America does not play an active, vigorous role in the
world, bad people do," Mr. Christie told about 400 members of the
Republican Jewish Coalition here at the Venetian Hotel Resort
Casino.
That argument drew spirited applause from a group that advocates
strong support for Israel and a robust American military footprint
overseas, but it comes at a time when polling shows that most
Americans want a cautious approach to foreign military
engagements.
The Republicans argued that President Barack Obama has
undermined American standing abroad by sending mixed signals in one
foreign conflict after another, among them the civil war in Syria
and Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent move to annex
Crimea.
"If people around the world--not just our allies but
adversaries--don't believe that we're strong, they will take
action," Mr. Walker said.
In remarks here, the Republicans mixed the personal with the
political as each delivered variations of their standard stump
speech to a crowd that included billionaire casino magnate Sheldon
Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., who shelled out an
estimated $92 million in political contributions in the 2012
election.
Mr. Christie said it was time for Republicans "as a party to
stop killing each other," referring to the quarreling between
conservative activists and party leaders in Washington that
resulted in a partial shutdown of the federal government last
year.
"I'm not in this business to have an academic conversation," Mr.
Christie said. "I am in this business to win elections."
All three governors stressed the need to expand the GOP's appeal
beyond the crusade for fiscal restraint that has defined the
Republican Party since Mr. Obama became president.
"We can't be the party of less," Mr. Walker said. "We can't be
the accountant party, with all due respect to the accountants here.
We can't be the party that's about cutting things and taking things
away."
The Wisconsin governor, while making a public point of brushing
aside any speculation about 2016, also made the case that the next
Republican presidential nominee should be a governor or someone who
doesn't serve in Congress.
"The other party's nominee is going to be someone who is in and
of Washington," Mr. Walker said. "We need to send people from
outside Washington."
For Mr. Christie, the stop in Las Vegas comes as the New Jersey
governor works to recover from a scandal that continues to weigh on
his White House ambitions. He fielded a question about the
controversy over the manufactured traffic jam last year in Fort
Lee, N.J., telling the crowd he needs to be more vigilant about
questioning the motives of people who serve in his
administration.
"I am going to be responsible for all that happens on my watch,"
he told the crowd.
A report released this week initiated by Mr. Christie largely
exonerated the Republican governor.
Much of the conversation here centered on the debate inside the
GOP about whether to subject the Pentagon budget to the same fiscal
austerity imposed on other agencies and federal programs, and
whether the U.S. should preserve its role enforcing stability
abroad. Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), a potential presidential
candidate, in particular has said conservatives should back
scaled-down military spending.
"Unfortunately, we see in our own party a rising tide of what
can only be viewed as isolation," former United Nations Ambassador
John Bolton told the crowd. "I am worried about the rise of
neo-isolationism in the Republican Party."
Write to Patrick O'Connor at patrick.oconnor@wsj.com
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