Arrows, unbowed
It has been entirely too long since last we fired the fickle arrows of conventional wisdom. As a man once told me, he appreciates the arrowed columns because he can extract the gist from the symbols without having actually to read the words. Whatever I can do to help. But I would invite your attention to the text. I’ll aim for pithiness.
—————— President Barack Obama— Does anyone remember when he was a stirring speaker?
His Syria-related positioning looks less than commanding—weak, actually, without influence in America and reliant on the creepy Vladimir Putin, of all people, for bailout.
Meanwhile, the president’s looming health-care reform is unpopular and in need of fixes, as Bill Clinton said. But Obama can’t say that lest he lose what little impetus remains for this only chance of making inroads toward universal health insurance that we’ll confront in our lifetimes.
Gov. Mike Beebe—His style isn’t very exciting. So for now, as state Sen. Jason Rapert of Conway grandstands on the teacher health-insurance crisis—but that’s redundant— and as teachers express outrage, the governor lets everyone vent.
In the meantime, he works typically in the back room toward reasonable consensus on what will be a pragmatic solution.
State Sen. Jason Rapert—Ever in search of an opportunity to appear to save the day in front of television cameras, his position as Senate chairman of the Insurance and Commerce Committee at a time of a teacher insurance crisis … why, that amounts to a saddled white horse that just trotted right up to him.
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor—He looked around the other day and saw that his Republican opponent, Tom Cotton, was on Obama’s side on an unpopular cause—military force in Syria—and getting summoned for strategy sessions at the White House.
He beheld that it’s better to be lucky than good.
Tom Cotton—He had two things going for him—his warrior record and that Pryor bore the Obama burden. So he overplayed the war hand and, in so doing, temporarily took the burden off Pryor’s back.
He needs to get the discussion back to Obamacare, which is likely to happen when the new health-care exchanges open Oct. 1.
For the moment, though, Young Tom has been bogged down politically by that old bugaboo of persistent personal principle.
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin—The Democrats intend to come after him hard, maybe with Bill Halter if they can find the guy and exalt and implore him sufficiently, which is to say substantially.
They say the math can work if they forge a big turnout in Pulaski County.
I’m actually more impressed with the math if the Democrats take on Griffin with a tough woman from Conway who stirs the base in Pulaski and holds her own in Faulkner County. Linda Tyler, that is. Either way, I rather appreciate the prospect of vigorous competition for the cocky Rovian oil company apologist.
Asa Hutchinson—What in the world? Beebe told Talk Business in an online Q-and-A session last week that Asa “would be more pragmatic than a lot of people think he would be.”
Whose side is the Democratic governor on, anyway?
The Democrats’ best hope for salvaging the governorship is to warn against the dire consequence of turning everything over to the extremist Republicans. And here’s Beebe saying soothing things about a Governor Asa.
Actually, here’s what I think that’s all about: Asa has acceded to certain legislative Republican pleadings that he not seek political exploitation of the private option or the parole disaster or the teacher health insurance crisis.
Beebe appreciates that and will keep his anti-Asa powder dry until he survives the fiscal session in February.
Lt. Gov. Mark Darr—If his ethical problems disqualify him from running for Congress, then why don’t they disqualify him from remaining a heartbeat from the governorship?
State Sen. David Sanders—He wasn’t much of a newspaper columnist, but he’s a solid state legislator. It’s an entirely different skill set. It turns out he is a policy wonk. He has superior command of those three aforementioned main issues—the private option, parole and teachers’ health insurance.
University of Arkansas in Fayetteville—Audit? What audit? Deficit? What deficit? Hey, we’re 3-0. The campus’ official position on overspending is … well, that would be wooo pig, sooie.
I am assuming, in this late-week writing, a win yesterday over Southern Mississippi.