On those weeks preceding long weekends with Monday holidays, I usually come in with an arrow column. It's on account of needing to produce a fifth column during the week for publication the next Tuesday.
I defend the convenient practice on the basis that the arrow columns have been reader-popular for decades and offer an opportunity for pithy, quick-hit treatment of a rich variety of timely subject matter.
It's kind of like tweeting, but more substantive.
So, in honor of the working man whose deserved day is Monday, here we go:
Donald Trump--His chances for re-election hinge on his 35 percent base, a good economy and Democratic ineptitude. His base and Democratic ineptitude are constants. The variable is the economy, which is showing signs of slowing, in part because of forces beyond political control and in part because of Trump's foolishness, particularly on trade. It will take some doing to lose to the Democrats, but he seems up to the task.
Tom Cotton--He runs the president. Not "for" president. He runs the guy who now is president. That's a bad thing for the country and world, but a good thing for his political standing in Trump-decayed Arkansas.
Joe Biden--His chances depend on surviving debates and gaffes and on Trump's becoming so frightful that Democrats will vote to nominate above all others the candidate polling best against the preposterous second-place and Russian-endorsed president. There haven't been any debates lately. Biden's last wince-inducing gaffe was two weeks ago, although he did praise the beauty around him in Vermont the other day when he was in New Hampshire. And Trump somehow gets more alarming by day.
Asa Hutchinson--Maybe governor of Arkansas is simply an easy job. Even Mike Huckabee could do it. Bill Clinton did it from 1987 onward as his third priority, behind running for president and the other thing.
Frank Scott--There have been blunders and the City Board of Directors doesn't seem to think all that much of him. But in the roles that he assigns for himself--as the city's toastmaster and the inspiration for a younger, trendier Little Rock trying to be more like Austin and Nashville--he's not doing badly. You can now walk around drinking outside in the River Market, which is not a thing on every Baptist preacher's resume.
Political excitement in Arkansas--It's not immediate, but it could be worth the wait. I mean 2022.
With Hutchinson term-limited, the Republican governor's field will likely pit Sarah Huckabee Sanders against Tim Griffin and maybe Asa's favored successor, his nephew Jim Hendren.
That would be a sure-enough bitter and divisive battle.
So let's say Sanders won the nomination and the Democrats remained anemic and that former House Speaker Davy Carter--a moderate Republican and thus a Beebe Democrat--got in the race as an independent. What if he ran by saying the Democrats couldn't win and that Sarah was a destructive force for the state because of her lying-for-Trump baggage, which would drive away economic development in the modern culture?
I'm not making any of that up; people close to Carter have talked about it.
Jason Rapert--Lieutenant governor was made for this guy. It's an office with no responsibility that offers the occupant the opportunity to pretend he's important while spending all his time raising private money in ways that would present conflicts if the office had any authority. The only fear is that something might happen to Governor Davy.
Good government in Arkansas--The FBI is still on the Arkansas corruption beat, and lawyer David Couch is coming with ballot issues to turn decennial redistricting over to an independent commission and make it easier--not harder, as the Legislature proposes--to get ballot issues qualified.
Chad Morris--He remains undefeated in his second season. And he's the best politician in Arkansas. He just coached the once-proud Razorback football team to its most disgraced season ever and yet people are fired up over their perceptions of the glory his genius promises. That's based in large part on two transfer quarterbacks, one formerly a part-time starter at SMU and the other formerly a part-time starter at Texas A&M.
Me--The prospect of an uncommon governor's battle in 2022 will keep me interested. I'd be only 68, more than a decade younger than President Biden. I'd still be able, I hope, to write about it for your iPad apps.
John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial on 08/28/2019