Sadly, Walker and his handlers know exactly what they are doing.

His most sophisticated supporters are benefiting and just want more.

His most attentive opponents struggle to get their more contextual and nuanced analysis to register with voters. Sadly, a diminished state press corps sometimes tends toward simple he-said, she-said recitations.

Walker haters, and there are many, often exude an unattractive and over-the-top enmity that sabotages their message, especially if it is accompanied by far left policy ideas that simply won’t sell beyond Madison and Milwaukee, and only in certain quarters there.

Finally, there sits the regular citizen who does not follow politics, and is preoccupied by the household budget, not “game-playing” in Madison. So freezing tuition and holding the line on taxes sounds superficially attractive.

Over the next year, let me suggest that you apply two filters to everything Walker says and does.

First, does whatever he is advocating transfer a greater burden onto future taxpayers?

Second, does whatever he is talking about reveal a vulnerability? In poker, they call that a “tell,” when a player inadvertently shows something about his or her hand.