The Capital Times’ Steven Elbow:

There’s no statement more telling in Emma Roller’s story in Slate on Gov. Scott Walker than the following comment on challenger Mary Burke’s campaign:

“Two weeks after Burke entered the race, 70 percent of Wisconsin residents either had no opinion of her or didn’t know who she was. That number was the same three months later. Although she’s more charismatic than Walker’s former opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, she still risks running the same sort of phlegmatic campaign that cost Barrett the recall election.”

And there is a lot of head scratching in liberal circles about the Burke campaign, which has failed, a little less than nine moths before the election, to generate any measurable excitement.

Walker, meanwhile, is getting all the ink. As the months pass, there’s more and more speculation about Walker in 2016. He’s a smart enough politician to let the momentum build, for now, without pushing it. He just has to maintain a national presence on TV and through personal appearances while still playing to his Wisconsin base by skillfully wielding the power of his office.

When the time comes, he could be a formidable candidate. He’s already impressed some as the person to watch. If the Republican power brokers think he’s their guy a year from now, he’ll have the cash he needs for a viable run.

And — talk about a backfire — the run-up to the 2012 recall election pretty much gave it to him.

“The recall established him nationally in conservative circles, gave him much more visibility nationally than he would have had otherwise, and most importantly let him have a national fundraising base,” Charles Franklin of the Marquette Law School Poll tells Roller. …

No one can say if Walker will hold up under the glare of national politics, but unless something surprising happens, it sure looks like he’ll get his shot.