Politico: “Last month, Scott Walker seemed readily available to any reporter who had a question for him. He was basking in the limelight, holding media scrums and granting impromptu interviews. But in the wake of a few controversial, headline-grabbing quotes about evolution and President Obama’s religion, the Wisconsin governor and likely Republican presidential candidate has put brakes on his media availability, reporters who follow him say.”

New York Times: “The classic Upper Midwest accent — nasal and full of flat a’s — is one of several Walker trademarks to have fallen away this month after an intense period of strategizing and coaching designed to help Mr. Walker capitalize on his popularity in early polls and show that he is not some provincial politician out of his depth.”

First Read: “Turning to our elections and races here at home, here is a pattern we’ve noticed with Scott Walker: Despite having a reputation of being someone who picks fights (against organized labor, against the University of Wisconsin), he’s resisted picking ANY fights when it comes to his own party. Used to be pro-immigration reform? He fixed that. Not 100% in favor of Iowa’s ethanol subsidies? Fixed again. Hired a digital director who once tweeted critical things about Iowa? She had to go.”

“Now you can argue that Jeb Bush is picking TOO MANY fights with his party (on immigration, on Common Core). But it is striking that someone who has the reputation as a fighter hasn’t once tried to challenge his own party — something that successful presidential candidates usually do.”

Gov. Scott Walker (R) “said his sons Matt and Alex would take a semester off from college this fall to talk to voters around the country — a move that would give Walker two campaign surrogates who can relate to young voters,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Iowa Republican: “Walker’s campaign in Iowa is moving so fast that it will make your head spin. But that’s not all that is moving at a fast pace for Walker. Some of his long held positions seem to be on the move lately as well. In the span of just a few weeks, Walker has apparently flip-flopped on a number of issues…”

“Mitt Romney was labeled as a flip-flopper because he changed his position on abortion (another issue Walker has received grief about lately) in advance of running for president in 2008, but Walker is making Romney look like a model of consistency.”

“Overhauling more than a half century of labor law in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker on Monday signed so-called right-to-work legislation banning labor contracts that require private sector workers to pay union fees,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

“In a matter of weeks, Republicans pushed through the measure making Wisconsin the 25th state with such a law, giving a victory to manufacturers in the state and a blow to organized labor and some construction firms, which had opposed the measure.”

New York Times: “Democrats assert that Mr. Walker’s real motivation is more about politics than job creation: breaking a dwindling union movement in Wisconsin and boosting his standing as the conservative choice for the Republican presidential nomination next year. And beyond Mr. Walker’s prospects, they say the new laws throughout the region are intended to help Republicans build a favorable electoral map for 2016, by weakening the labor groups that have traditionally provided muscle and money to Democratic candidates in crucial swing states.”

“On a recent Monday at Washington’s Willard InterContinental hotel, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was schooled on the world by some of the GOP’s leading foreign-policy lights. In a two-hour tutorial, seated around a table in the Taft Room sipping sodas and coffee, they used detailed regional maps to lead the likely presidential candidate on a tour of the globe’s hot spots: Israel and the Middle East, Latin America, Russia and Ukraine.,” the Washington Post reports.

“The reason for Walker’s crash course was urgent: He has not impressed many leading Republicans with his grasp of foreign affairs. He drew mockery from members of both parties last month for refusing to talk about foreign policy on a trip to London and then for comparing his experience battling labor protesters to taking on Islamic State terrorists.”

Gov. Scott Walker (R) “is the rare favorite of conservatives who emphasize electability. He won three contests in four years in Wisconsin, which hasn’t voted for the Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1984. He did so without compromising on the Republican Party’s core principles; instead, he prevailed in a high-profile fight with organized labor,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Walker might well prove to be a stronger general election candidate than Mitt Romney. That’s not a very high bar. But his electoral record — three wins in governor’s races in four years in Wisconsin, including a recall election — isn’t as impressive as it looks. It’s not clear that Mr. Walker would have won re-election in November 2012, when he wouldn’t have had the many benefits of running in an off-year election. It’s still less clear that he could have run far ahead of Mr. Romney had he sought federal office; he would have been deprived of the labor and pensions issues that have split Democratic-leaning voters in many parts of the country.”

Amy Walter: “Scott Walker in 2015 is a lot like Barack Obama circa 2007; he’s relatively unknown and yet well-known at the same time. Obama’s speech at the DNC in 2004 propelled him to rock-star status among the Democratic faithful, while Walker’s victory over the public sector labor unions in 2011 made him a legend among conservatives. The Wisconsin Governor begins this campaign as a vessel into which voters can pour their hopes and aspirations. The question now is whether the idea of Walker can match up with the reality of Walker.”

Gov. Scott Walker (R) “embraced a move to ban abortion after 20 weeks after repeatedly declining to spell out where he stood on the issue in last year’s re-election campaign,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

“Walker said in last year’s campaign he opposed abortion, but refused to say whether he supported banning the procedure after 20 weeks. At one stage, he ran an ad saying earlier restrictions he approved were aimed at patient safety and that he understood the decision to terminate a pregnancy was an ‘agonizing one.'”

“When White House hopeful Scott Walker talks to potential voters, he hawks himself as a leader who tells people what he will do and then does it. But the line has a snag. As a candidate for governor, Walker didn’t spell out or even mention some of the measures that would become key achievements in office,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

“Most notably, Walker never told voters beforehand about what would become his signature accomplishment — repealing most collective bargaining for most public workers. During the uproar over that unexpected legislation known as Act 10 and the recall and re-election campaigns that followed, Walker said he wouldn’t let legislation affecting private-sector workers reach his desk. Now he says he’ll sign it.”

Byron York: “He seems to be the Republican candidate who has the best chance of connecting with the millions of middle-class voters who have drifted away from the GOP in recent elections…”

“At the same time, Walker could be headed for trouble with the establishment, Washington-based wing of his party. Look for GOP insiders to begin whispering, and then saying out loud, that Walker needs to raise his game if he is going to play on the national stage. On the one hand, they’ll have a point — Walker needs to come up with clear, crisply-expressed positions on a variety of national and international issues. On the other hand, Walker’s way-outside-the-Beltway method of expressing himself might resonate with voters in primary and caucus states more than Washington thinks.”