The flare-up over Trek is the latest twist in a high-profile race that has taken on a through-the-looking-glass quality. Walker, a darling of conservatives and widely considered a serious contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has adopted President Obama’s 2012 playbook, attacking Burke’s record as a businesswoman and portraying her as an out-of-touch corporate executive who’s been busy amassing a fortune at the expense of the little people. Burke, meanwhile, has been mirroring Romney’s 2012 strategy, hitting the incumbent’s lack of business experience as a reason for his inability to deliver on promises of jobs.

Playing the populist card is a dangerous gambit for Walker. It’s one thing to try and harness anger (which exists on both the left and the right) toward big banks on Wall Street that blew up the economy and then got bailed out with taxpayer money, or to rail against the rampant crony capitalist culture of Washington D.C. It’s something else to bash one of the most well-known, well-liked companies in your state with the aforementioned all-American success story.

Walker’s attack is also risky because it’s so blatantly cynical. It’s so obviously out of step with core Republican beliefs it’s impossible to think Walker actually even believes his own ad. Would he be pushing such a dubious argument if he were up 10 points in the polls? Obviously not.