Walker’s free fall is certainly not all Trump’s doing. Walker’s performance at the Cleveland debate had journalists scrambling for a thesaurus to find variations on “dull,” “bland” and “boring.”

For Walker, the hard truth is not only that he lacks the gravitas to back up his preferred tone of bravado, but also that he seems to lack the, um, intellectual agility needed to hold up under a presidential spotlight.

In mid-July, I interviewed Axelrod to preview his appearance for a charity fundraiser in Madison and asked him about Walker. His words then sound prescient: “Presidential politics is like pole-vaulting,” he said. “Each time you clear a bar, it gets raised. The scrutiny becomes more intense as you go on. The glib answers you can get by with early don’t work later. Your record is evaluated by a much harsher standard. We’ll see how he fares.” Axelrod spoke a bit more colorfully at the Orpheum Theater fundraiser in describing the vulnerability of an underqualified politician seeking higher office: “The higher a monkey climbs a pole, the more you can see his ass.”

It is still early, but we’re seeing plenty.

Scott Walker: There's a 'handful of reasonable, moderate followers of Islam'

When speaking about radical Islamic terrorism at a campaign stop Friday, Gov. Scott Walker noted that there are a "handful of reasonable and moderate followers of Islam."

His comments at a VFW Post in Derry, New Hampshire, triggered a quick response from a Muslim advocacy organization, which called on him to apologize.

Scott Walker: There's a 'handful of reasonable, moderate followers of Islam'

When speaking about radical Islamic terrorism at a campaign stop Friday, Gov. Scott Walker noted that there are a "handful of reasonable and moderate followers of Islam."

His comments at a VFW Post in Derry, New Hampshire, triggered a quick response from a Muslim advocacy organization, which called on him to apologize.

Walker says he's not taking stand on birthright citizenship

The Wisconsin governor said in a CNBC interview Friday that he wouldn't take a stand "one way or the other" on the Constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. Walker's statement comes after he gave mixed answers on the issue earlier in the week, including saying that the U.S. should "absolutely" end birthright citizenship.

"There were a lot of people in my party, particularly in the legislative branch, who said, 'You know it's nice to be in the majority, that means we've got a bigger office and more staff and nice titles but I don't know that we really want to do all that much more.'

"They said, 'It's kind of safe here, if we have to push some of the big, bold reforms you're talking about, there might be some push-back. And some of us in safe seats might actually have some challenges.' You know what? We said, 'Never mind. We got elected for a reason. We didn't get elected for a title .... We got elected to do something.'"

But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Republicans in that house never balked over the controversial proposal to all but end collective bargaining for most of the state's public workers, known as Act 10.

"That was not my recollection," Vos said. "I wasn't in every meeting but on the Assembly side, I never met anybody (in leadership) who wasn't on board from day one."