EDITORIAL: Indiana focus could propel Pence upward

“Some people say that the next president ought to be a governor,” he said to laughter at a gathering of the Federalist Society in Indianapolis earlier this month. “I’m certainly sympathetic to that view.”

The pre-maneuverers for the Republican nomination are a large and varied crowd, and it’s far too early for a meaningful 2016 road map.

But the pre-run clearly has Indiana’s governor thinking nationally and internationally. He took on Russian aggression against Ukraine while on a trade mission to Germany and was warmly received by the National Rifle Association during its convention in Indianapolis. Yet this month, he’s planning to speak to two more state GOP conventions.

Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, who interviewed him in Washington, D.C., last month, wrote that Indiana’s governor “appeared genuinely undecided, if not downright skeptical. But plainly he’s a governor immersed in state-led reform with a strong grasp of foreign affairs. The GOP could do worse …”