Wisconsin "will be at the epicenter of American politics" for "at least the next two months."

Says Dan Balz at the Washington Post, explaining the importance of the recall effort to unseat Gov. Scott Walker.

This homegrown fight has national implications. Walker has become a symbol of Republican governance in today’s GOP. He is campaigning energetically and unapologetically, arguing that he took courageous action to deal with his state’s severe fiscal problems — the same thing Republicans are saying should be done nationally. Walker contends that his policies have been good for the state’s economy and its taxpayers.

His opponents see those policies almost exactly the way President Obama described the federal budget written by Walker’s Wisconsin soul mate, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and passed recently by the House. Last week, Obama called the Ryan budget a radical document that would put the country in decline. That echoes the view of Walker’s opponents, who say his actions have hurt the state and unfairly punished state employees....



Walker is a hero to Republicans. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were the featured attractions at the Waukesha County dinner before last week’s primary, but it was Walker who generated by far the most energy in the room. He was greeted with several standing ovations.

Republicans don’t just approve of the job he’s doing; they enthusiastically embrace him. More than nine in 10 “strongly approve” of the job he is doing, according to exit polls from Tuesday’s presidential primary. Among strong tea party supporters, strong approval is 94 percent. Among very conservative voters, it’s 92 percent.

There's a big upside for Republicans here, though the Democrats brought this showdown upon themselves. In the first of the 2 months, as Balz describes at the link, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk are tearing each other apart to get the Democratic Party nomination. You've got the man beating up on the woman just when Democrats want to demagogue the "war on women." The election is very much about the power of public unions, and because she has the backing of the unions, Falk may win the primary only to be "cast... as a tool of the unions who would do their bidding as governor." This is our little drama here in Wisconsin, but as Balz says, it has national implications.

I'd love to know what the Obama people really think of this immense distraction their Wisconsin Democrats have kicked up. I doubt if they want Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk — fighting each other — as the face of the party in these crucial 2 months when there's not much else going on in the political arena. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how Mitt Romney and (Wisconsin's own) Paul Ryan will  exploit Scott Walker's (heroic?) struggle for survival.