The New York Times has your back!  That's what I have to say to any Republican candidate, who can always find a wealth of good advice in the Times.  In this case, they are expressing concern for Scott Walker.  Since announcing his candidacy, he has taken a number of conservative positions that writers at the Times worry may hurt him in the general election campaign.

Now a growing number of party leaders say Mr. Walker is raising questions about his authenticity and may be jeopardizing his prospects in states where voters’ sensibilities are more moderate.

Asked about same-sex marriage after his state’s ban was struck down in federal court and the Supreme Court refused to review that decision, Mr. Walker said, “For us, it’s over in Wisconsin.” At a gathering of Republican donors in New York in the spring, Mr. Walker indicated that his response to an eventual Supreme Court ruling, if it deemed same-sex marriage constitutional, would be in keeping with the spirit of his earlier remark about the question being a settled one in Wisconsin, people who attended the meeting said.

[But] His response to the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage most emphatically demonstrated his sharp shift to the right: Mr. Walker called the court’s ruling “a grave mistake” and reiterated his call for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to ban same-sex marriage.

He used to oppose what he called government mandates on the use of ethanol in gasoline, for example, but told Iowans this year that he was willing to continue 

Until this year, Mr. Walker supported a comprehensive overhaul, including a pathway to citizenship for people in the country illegally.

... [by shifting rightward] Mr. Walker appears increasingly willing to lose the general election to win the primary.

“Scott takes this path at his peril in New Hampshire,” said Charlie Bass, a former congressman there. By aligning himself with more conservative candidates on marriage, Mr. Walker puts at risk the support of more economy-focused voters in the first primary state, Mr. Bass said.

So what to make of all this?

Possibility #1: Scott Walker is a genuinely conservative candidate, and the New York Times, in a backdoor way, is trying to either (a) nudge him back to the left or (b) portray him as an out-of-touch conservative.

Possibility #2: Scott Walker is a genuinely liberal candidate who is pretending to be conservative, and the New York Times is trying to (a) not so subtly portray him as a flip-flopper or (b) nudge him back to the left or (c) simply discredit conservative positions.

It's such a complex question, because first you have to figure out what Scott Walker really is, a subject of much dispute, and then you have to figure out what the motive of the Times is.  Supporters view him as a sincere conserative and will view this as another smear job trying to portray him as insincere and/or out of touch with the general electorate.  Detractors will view this article ironically because they do not see Walker as believing the very positions that the Times warns are box office poison with the general electorate.

I think by now most of you know my view on this, but I think we can all at least agree that it is comical for the Times to worry about the chances of Republican candidates.  It's like Lenin giving tips to the White Russians or President Wilson giving advice to Pancho Villa or Tip O'Neill giving tips to the Contras.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.