Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker cites world leaders and foreign affairs experts as the source of his knowledge on several foreign policy issues. But on U.S. policy toward Iran, he frequently mentions his friend Kevin Hermening as crucial to his thinking. Hermening, a resident of Wausau, Wis., was a 20-year-old Marine taken prisoner in Iran in 1979 during the hostage crisis. He now operates a financial consulting firm.
“As a kid I remember, we had a big old tree out in front of our house, and I remember tying yellow ribbons around the front of that tree in 1979 because Iran held Americans hostage in their country,” Walker told the crowd gathered at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City last month.
“One of those hostages, the youngest Marine that was held captive at that time, is a friend of mine, Kevin Hermening who lives in Wausau, Wis. And I look back talking to Kevin and others, I realize not much has changed. So why’re we doing business with them? Why even talk about doing a deal with them?”
Iran held 52 Americans, including Hermening, in captivity for 444 days. After he attempted to escape, Hermening spent 43 days in solitary confinement. He was the youngest American hostage, finally released after President Ronald Reagan took office.
When asked about his own story, however, Hermening immediately focused on others who also suffered behind bars in Iran and on the “real heroes” who died trying to set the hostages free. While he spoke with the Washington Examiner soon after Memorial Day, Hermening’s focus on others, especially the American servicemen who died, does not appear to be a practiced talking point. He said he believes he has a responsibility to speak out, so that the Obama administration will pay attention to the former hostages as it negotiates with Iran about its nuclear capabilities.
“Several others [former hostages] have faced enormous medical, including psychological challenges, especially in the past year to year-and-a-half during these negotiations with a state that doesn’t seem to respect international law,” he said. “One of my colleagues who was there, was only a few years older than me, spent the entire past year in the hospital because of stress — an entire year in the hospital.
It seems to me that the administration needs to get serious about recognizing the first victims of state-sponsored international terrorism, that would be the 52 of us, to demand that any negotiation — before it proceeds — should be led with the release of and addressing the four Americans who are still held prisoner and captive in Iran.”
Hermening said he met Walker in the mid-1980s as they volunteered for various Republican campaigns. Both were active in GOP politics during the Reagan era, though Hermening laughed about how his own “political star rose and ended on the school board.”
In talking about Hermening on the campaign trail, Walker appears to be imitating Reagan’s effective use of personal anecdotes, said Kori Schake, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
“By making it personal, he gives people greater reason to care [and] emphasizes his expertise without linking himself to the foreign policy establishment,” said Schake. “What it subtly points out is, yeah, he might not have experience in foreign policy, but, wow, he thinks about it in personal terms. And that’s the way most Americans think about foreign policy.”
Schake said Walker has made some early gaffes on foreign affairs, such as his statement, “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world,” which appeared to link his struggle with liberal cheese heads to the United States’ fight against the Islamic State. But, she said, his strategy of talking to people directly affected by foreign policy decisions is smart and resembles how he has approached the issue of immigration. Before traveling to Israel earlier this month, Walker visited America’s southern border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
When talking about key policy debates, Walker often emphasizes his personal triumphs over liberal lawmakers rather than a distant approach to contentious issues favored by academics and think-tank researchers. By doing so, Walker seems to remind voters that he left Marquette University in Milwaukee without a college degree to start creating his political career.
Walker has been criticized for his lack of education on foreign policy. An article in Foreign Policy magazine recently said “misgivings about Walker’s knowledge of the world go far beyond a few badly placed words” and that there is a “growing perception that when it comes to foreign policy, he’s an empty chair.”
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist who worked for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, said Walker has recently improved his message on foreign policy but has a long way to go.
“Unfortunately for Scott, what that means is this transformation does not occur overnight, it’s really a time-intensive endeavor,” O’Connell said. “And a lot of [presidential candidates] — not just Scott — are behind the clock, particularly the governors.”
Walker runs the risk of becoming a “Johnny one-note,” if he harps on his personal connection to Hermening too much, which could catch up to the governor in upcoming debates, said O’Connell.
A Walker aide told the Examiner that Hermening is not an official adviser to the governor or his political group, Our American Revival. The aide said Walker continues to share Hermening’s story to explain how the Iranian regime has affected Wisconsin. Walker’s political group has also highlighted his internal foreign policy advisers, including Robert O’Brien, a foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney in 2012 and former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent.
When Walker wants voters to know he understands crucial foreign policy issues, he frequently refers to his recent trip to Israel and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also has visited with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Dalai Lama, and former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.
O’Connell said Walker should follow Romney’s example and study foreign policy for several hours each day to better prepare himself for the rigors of the campaign.
