Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says that it's "flattering" that people are considering him as a potential presidential candidate, but right now, he's focusing on being re-elected governor in 2014.
"They're not talking about it because of some great speech I've given. They talk about it because we've taken real action and real reforms," Walker told CBS "Face the Nation" guest host John Dickerson Sunday.
However, he noted that there is similar speculation around several other Republican governors, and while he didn't rule out the presidential talk on the Sunday show, he wasn't at the point of confirming it, either.
Walker admitted he plans to announce that he's running for reelection as governor, and "we'll see what happens after that."
"Ultimately, my decision will be made not just by myself and my family," said Walker. "But I've got to look at my state. My state's gone through a lot the last couple years. And there's a part of me that would just like to stay focused on helping the state move forward. So we'll see what the future holds. But for now, I'm focused on being governor."
Walker,
the first governor in U.S. history who has survived a recall effort, has written a new book,
"Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge," which focuses on the differences of the Republican Party inside and outside Washington D.C.
He said Sunday that in order to win back the Senate, Republicans need to "lay out an optimistic message."
One of the key differences between Washington Republicans in Washington and everywhere else is that outside the capital, "we talk about things that are relevant and optimistic," said Walker. "We talk about fixing schools, balancing budgets, getting the economy going again. We don't talk about sequesters and fiscal cliffs and debt ceilings.
"Those are things a handful of people in politics pay attention to. What Americans want are people with the courage to stand up and fight for them. Not fight against each other, fight for the hardworking taxpayers," he added.
Walker said voters backed him in his first election in 2010 and the recall effort in 2012 because of his focus on the state's economy, not because of his social values.
"I'm not backing away from my positions," said Walker. "I'm proudly pro-life. For me the reason I was elected in 2010, and re-elected in 2012 and yet again in 2014 like other governors is because we focused obsessively on helping fix the economy and the private sector and helping put in place a balanced budget that can sustain us above state and local level."
And he also rejects the belief that a divided government, like today's in Washington, benefits the people.
"I think most of us across this country have seen divided government just leads to more fighting and bickering and gridlock," Walker said. "In Wisconsin and many others, the battleground states in the Midwest, in 2010, we focused on our economic and fiscal crises, laid out a clear plan, and then voters in my state and many others in my surrounding states gave Republicans not only the governor's office but the majorities in the state assembly and the state senate or similar measures in the legislature."
Further, Walker said, people don't really care about whether a plan is from the Democrats or the Republicans, but instead, they "want to hear a clear plan of how to move forward. The more people look at the mess in Washington, they realize that divided government does not work, that gridlock, fighting for the sake of fighting, is not working."
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