THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

It is never a good sign when a presidential candidate seeks to erase his roots. Whether it is to cover up where the bodies are buried or just change his speaking ways, it tells the people back home that they are an embarrassment to some newly important little shit. The Evil Koch Owned Homunculus Scott Walker is just such a little shit.

Out on the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Scott Walker has left “Wiscahnsin” back home in Wisconsin. He now wants to strengthen the economy, not the “ecahnahmy.” And while he once had the “ahnor” of meeting fellow Republicans, he told one group here this week that he simply enjoyed “talkin’ with y’all.”

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.

He is tailoring his pitch to his audiences — wearing pullover sweaters in earth-tone colors in one early primary state, New Hampshire, and discussing the power of prayer in another, here in South Carolina. He has reined in his rambling speeches, at least compared with his recorded remarks over the years. He is trying to listen more and opine less, associates say, and he is easygoing with voters — a contrast with his pugilistic reputation from his successful battle against Wisconsin labor unions, which made him a hero to many conservatives.

Alabama, he started rattling off Alabama players on the Green Bay Packers,” said Rod Benfield, a South Carolina Republican who came away from a state party fund-raising event on Thursday “very impressed” with Mr. Walker. “We talked football for five minutes. Politics never came up.”

No other Republican considering a run for the presidency is under more pressure to show that he can vault from statewide popularity to top-tier contention than Mr. Walker, given his relative inexperience on the national stage and low name recognition in many states — no matter how much fervor he inspires in conservative circles.

Is he a durable candidate with wide appeal? Or is he a flavor of the month — as former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Herman Cain were during the Republican nominating contests in 2012 — or a firebrand peaking too early, as Howard Dean did before the 2004 Democratic primaries?

Flavor Of The Month conjures up images of billionaires lining up to take a lick of Little Scotty to see if they like him. But with the Homunculus' determination, if they don't like this month's, he will twist, flip flop and weasel himself into something else next month. But underneath it all he will be the same old little shit.