All have ups and downs

John Brummett is blogging daily online.

With new polls and new stunts and new gimmicks, and with an election year for the ages proceeding in volatile fashion in Arkansas, we need to keep the arrows fresh.

So here goes.

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Gov. Mike Beebe-He strolled through the lunch crowd at the Political Animals Club meeting on Tuesday, unable to stay away from the assembly in the reception hall abutting his home.

I asked him if he was ready for imminent retirement. He beamed and said absolutely.

I predicted he’d be miserable, removed from the center of activity and attention after nearly 35 years there.

He just looked at me. We’ll see about this time next year who’s right.

I don’t know what his options would be. He does not want to go to the U.S. Senate in 2016, which is a lucky thing for John Boozman.

By the way, I have further cogitated on Beebe’s place in history and gubernatorial rankings and concluded as follows: Win Rockefeller and Dale Bumpers rank at the top because of the seminally progressive era they launched. Beebe comes just next, largely for steering the state ably through two meltdowns-the economic one of 2008 and the one of his own political party in Arkansas in 2010 and 2012-and getting epic legislation passed along the perilous way.

Hillary Clinton-She is doing so well that Rush Limbaugh is speculating that she manufactured that shoe-throwing incident in Las Vegas the other day to make herself look nimble as she ducked out of the way.

It was a cleated shoe, and the woman who threw it has been charged. If you’re going to arrange to have a shoe thrown at you for political advantage, you’d go with a noncleated sneaker, seems to me.

Mike Huckabee-He let his glibness roll over into absurd hyperbole again the other day by telling a conservative gathering in New Hampshire that sometimes he thinks North Korea is freer than the United States. He made no mention of plans to move, however.

Apparently he was irked by getting patted down at airports, a big job. But look who’s talking.

I am fairly sure Huckabee is not going to run for president. I think Branson’s calling.

The Arkansas Supreme Court-How is it supposed to rule on the matter of other judges and judicial candidates not paying on time to renew their licenses when all seven of its members have been late at one time or another? We’re going to need seven special justices, I guess.

Mark Pryor-The Kochs have fired solid ammunition at him and he leads in the polls. Something has finally stuck on Tom Cotton.

It’s Medicare, of course.

Obamacare-It’s going to work. It just is.

More people will enroll, premiums will stabilize, providers will be relieved of uncompensated care and the deficit actually will shrink.

That’s according to the Congressional Budget Office, which is nonpartisan and which the Republicans love to quote when they like the reports.

The private option-Ditto. The state Senate conceivably could lose a vital 27th vote for it if Bruce Holland loses to Terry Rice. But, heck, Missy Irvin is going to get re-elected and switch back next time, or so I predict.

Missy Irvin-She was up. Then I fired that preceding arrow.

Tom Cotton-The trump card of Obamacare has been played. So now what? He deals himself a new hand and calls for free-form debates.

There’ll be another hand with the Obamacare trump before November.

Mike Ross-His proposal to work toward universal pre-K access for 4-year-olds reminds Democrats that there is a difference between him and Asa Hutchinson.

Asa Hutchinson-Smartly, he keeps quiet and lets his wife do the talking. And he shows a picture of himself with a hunting gun over his shoulder.

Can he avoid losing a statewide race in a fourth consecutive decade? It’s conceivable, though he’ll have to put down the weapon and talk for himself again eventually.

Pat Hays and James Lee Witt-Odds are one of these Democratic old-timers is going to go to Congress. Maybe both.

French Hill-That ad about the rich banker with the car that won’t start is so horrible it’s effective.

Hill versus Hays would be a pretty good congressional battle for the fall in the 2nd District.

Brandon Allen-Down? But isn’t he completing 70 percent of his passes in the Razorback spring scrimmages?

Yes, he is. But that’s against the Razorback secondary, last seen covering somebody in 1975.

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John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

Editorial, Pages 13 on 04/17/2014

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