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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker officially announced this week that he is running for — wait for it — re-election as governor of Wisconsin.

It will be at least six months before he says anything definitive regarding that other office, the oval-shaped one in Washington, D.C.

And that's to be expected.

Governors in both parties routinely run for re-election while keeping coy about the White House — much like Bill Clinton in 1990 and George W. Bush in 1998 and Rick Perry in 2010.

Of course there's no question what's on Walker's mind, long-term. His autobiography is titled Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge — generously expanding his current horizon.

Although just 46 years old, the Wisconsinite has avoided any public vow that he'll serve out his four years if re-elected, and he's wandered as far afield as Las Vegas to court the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who bankrolled Newt Gingrich's last run for the White House.

Walker moved up on a lot of people's short lists after the media love affair with Chris Christie's candidacy got nipped in the bud by Bridgegate. He has some of Christie's potential to span the GOP's internal divide, appealing to both the establishment (as Jeb Bush might) and the hard-core conservative base (as nearly all the other wannabes are trying to do).

But to rise into that role, Walker needs a boost from a robust re-election. And that could get tricky in a swing state like Wisconsin, where pride often goeth before a fall.

Walker's state GOP stands at a pinnacle of success and influence at home and in Washington. As he reclaimed the governorship for his party in 2010, the GOP was also seizing control of the state Legislature. Republicans captured the majority of the seats in the state's congressional delegation for the first time since 1996 and Ron Johnson became the first Wisconsin Republican in the U.S. Senate since 1992.

Since that watershed, Wisconsinite Reince Priebus has become chairman of the Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has been the party's nominee for vice president.

But even this apparent golden age for the party has worrisome elements in the mix. Good times can expose rifts, and recently state Sen. Glenn Grothman, a hard-line conservative from West Bend, announced a challenge to 73-year-old Republican Tom Petri in the state's 6th Congressional District.

Though a good party man, Petri is too mild-mannered a conservative for many in the Tea Party wing. Not long after Grothman got in, the 73-year-old got out, retiring after 35 years in office.

Something of that same insurgent spirit animated a recent 6th District meeting of activists that produced a resolution calling on state legislators to affirm the state's rights — including its right to secede "under extreme circumstances."

In headline shorthand, that became a "secession resolution," but a party committee approved it for consideration by the full statewide GOP convention in May. That prompted lots of media inquiries and forced Walker to dissociate himself from the"secession resolution" forthwith.

It was the second time this month the governor, who has been a darling of much of the right, found himself at odds with some conservatives. The first came when his new 25-year-old campaign spokeswoman, Alleigh Marre, was outed as a supporter of Planned Parenthood and "a woman's right to choose." Walker's allies in the anti-abortion movement erupted in protests. But so far the governor has stood by his aide.

No, Walker has not become some middle-of-the-road pol. To be sure, his re-election would be rooted in his high-profile showdown with public employee unions in 2011 and his renown as a social conservative. But to win a big re-election this fall, he needs to cut into his Democratic opponent's margins among women and independents. That is a tall order against that opponent, Democrat Mary Burke, a woman with a business background.

That could be why Walker, ever "the conservative's conservative," has lately seemed attuned to sensibilities beyond his fan base. He has not shifted on policy but on tone, turning toward "big tent" tolerance. That will not make Walker the national favorite of his party's hard-liners. But the competition to be the most implacable conservative in the 2016 GOP presidential field is already crowded to the point of pointlessness. The better running room for Walker is to be found somewhere between Jeb Bush and everyone else.

If the jockeying before the 2016 presidential race is a game of political chess, the most powerful queen on the board would obviously be Hillary Clinton.

So much of what will happen in 2016 hinges on Clinton's decision on whether to run, which she has said she'll announce by the end of this year.

If the former secretary of state and New York senator enters the race, she reduces the space on the board for any competitors within her own party. That would be particularly true for the Democratic women mentioned as possibilities for national office.

Vice President Joe Biden or Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, both of whom have the presidential itch, could still decide to run with Clinton in the race. They haven't closed the door to a challenge, and might argue that a contested primary is a necessary endeavor, if only to give Democrats a choice.

What's more, says Lorena Chambers, a Democratic political consultant and principal of Chambers Lopez Strategies, told It's All Politics that someone like O'Malley might feel the need to challenge Clinton in the primaries in order to be considered for her veep spot.

It could come down to someone in O'Malley's position "thinking, 'Yes, there's no way potentially I could win the primaries and caucuses. But certainly I could show my strength and be able to prove to Secretary Clinton that I'm formidable and can really help on the ticket.' It would be a very cordial debate and back and forth. Everyone on the Democratic side would be as unified as they could be considering they were ostensibly running against each other in the primary."

The most prominent other Democratic female prospects not named Clinton, on the other hand, signed a private letter last year urging the former secretary of state to run. So Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are on record encouraging the former first lady to get in the race. That doesn't preclude them from challenging Clinton, but if one of them turned around and ran, the move would risk being viewed as treachery.

In any case, they wouldn't find much running room: The shadow Clinton campaign, which has been unofficially underway since last year, is locking up fundraisers, donors and campaign operatives.

Ready for Hillary and Priorities USA have joined forces to provide Clinton with a campaign-in-waiting.

A Clinton decision to run would also likely force a reaction on the Republican side.

So far, there's no evidence suggesting there's a top Republican female candidate raising money or putting together a team for a potential presidential run.

That means a Clinton candidacy would focus attention on what, at the moment, is shaping up as an all-male GOP field. And that would increase pressure on the Republican nominee to name a woman as a running mate.

"Whether she runs or not, GOPers would be smart to have someone other than a white male on the ticket," said Becki Donatelli, a Republican consultant. "John McCain was right in his tactics by picking Sarah Palin. The strategy of the pick was sound — someone new, exciting and different. And even though you are not seeing women queue up to run for president [on the Republican side], I suspect you will see several women or people of some ethnic minority on the VP short list — seriously on the list — and not for show."

Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Govs. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma are names that keep coming up.

(Martinez is already getting a taste of 2016-style scrutiny. A Mother Jones profile just out portrays her as vindictive and having alienated many Republicans in her state. In another 2016 touch, the Democratic National Committee made sure to email the story to journalists.)

There's the possibility that Clinton won't run, of course, as unlikely as that now seems given all the attention she's getting and her well-known ambition.

But if, for whatever reason, Clinton decides against running, that would set off a scramble on the Democratic side resembling a 19th-century land rush.

"All hell breaks loose," Chambers said. "It is just a free-for-all in a way we haven't seen in a very long time, at least not on our side, the Democratic side."

That would open the field for some of those aforementioned Democratic women. One or more could try to attract disappointed members of Clinton's Democratic base, especially women.

Chambers doesn't think Democratic women would necessarily rally behind another Democratic woman if Clinton chooses not to run. That's because there is no other woman who will be able to capture Democratic hearts and minds anywhere close to the way Clinton can.

Chambers can just as easily see Democrats getting behind a man, perhaps O'Malley, who might then choose a female running mate, someone like California Attorney General Kamala Harris, for instance.

"When you talk about chess, literally, the queen has this virtual power," Chambers said. "And no one can replace it. Once you get the queen, it's done. So I don't think we can pull this chess piece out and put another chess piece in to take the queen's place. I don't think Secretary Clinton is replaceable as a woman."

Chelsea Clinton announced Thursday that she and husband Marc Mezvinsky are expecting their first child, also a first grandchild for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Mark and I are very excited that we have our first child arriving later this year," Chelsea Clinton, who is 34, said at a New York event while sitting on a stage with her mother, according to The Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton said she's "really excited" about becoming a grandmother.

Chelsea is vice chairman of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Foundation. She made the announcement at the end of an event on empowering young women, the AP says.

When I saw the first episode of BBC America's Orphan Black last year, I was convinced it was a crappy Canadian police drama.

That's because the set-up seemed like the oddest sort of crime procedural nonsense. A street urchin-style grifter sees a middle class woman who looks just like her leap in front of a commuter train, nabs her purse and climbs into her life – only to find her doppelganger is a troubled police officer with problems of her own.

Orphan Black fans know that was only the tip of the tale; grifter Sarah Manning learned she was one of more than a half dozen clones spread across the world. And someone was killing them off, even as others were suffering from a mysterious health breakdown which seemed connected to their unique heritage.

The show returns Saturday for its second season in fine form, with star Tatiana Maslany continuing her unerring ability to inhabit several different characters – many of them onscreen at the same time – and make you believe each one is separate and distinct.

Maslany's sizable achievements aside, however, I'm convinced another big reason Orphan Black stands as one of the best new series of last year is because it is really several different kinds of shows in one.

On the surface, it's a science fiction story about the dangers of science advancing ahead of legality and morality. As the second season opens, the clone we know best, British-raised Sarah Manning, has seen her daughter and foster mother disappear, possibly taken by the shadowy medical corporation that's monitoring the clones.

Last season, we learned one clone had been brainwashed into killing the others by a religious zealot. On Saturday, we will see that he is not alone; other people of faith have joined the quest to capture the clones, raising compelling questions about where God's laws end and man's ambition begins.

There's also a thriller element to all this, as several of the clones have banded together in hopes of discovering how they came to be and why the CIA-like Dyad Institute is so interested in monitoring and controlling them. The clone who is a buttoned-down housewife, Alison Hendrix, is the go-to for comedy relief, stuck performing in a god-awful community theater musical while enduring rejection from her soccer-mom buddies for a meltdown last year.

And don't forget the bits of cop drama: Sarah originally took the identity of police office Beth Childs. Now Beth's partner Art Bell has joined forces with Sarah to track the conspiracy, risking his own career in the process. A double murder in a diner – which Sarah happened to witness – only draws more police attention in Saturday's show.

The new episode is a rollicking return to form for the series, featuring Sarah confronting the Dyad Institute itself to find her missing child and foster mom. Maslany's command of her work is so complete in this second season, you barely notice when the Canadian actress plays against herself in scenes featuring two and three clones interacting at once. It's fascinating to see how they film it all.

TV insiders credit social media for much of Orphan Black's success, as high profile fans such as Kevin Bacon, Patton Oswalt, Scandal co-star Josh Molina and Sarah Silverman tweeted love for the show, sometimes using the hashtag #CloneClub.

But I'll always value how Orphan Black's ability to shift and combine genres — sometimes in the same scene — kept me hooked through the first season while supercharging the second.