The perfect model of a Republican presidential primary candidate.

The perfect model of a Republican presidential primary candidate.

When Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert first announced that he would seek an alternative expansion plan, he stressed: "I am not recommending an expansion of the federal Medicaid program." Or take Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam when he announced last month that he had crafted an alternative proposal. "We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not to expand traditional Medicaid," Haslam said. "This is an alternative approach that forges a different path and is a unique Tennessee solution. Our approach is responsible and reasonable, and I truly believe that it can be a catalyst to fundamentally changing health care in Tennessee."

A senior Republican policy source who has worked on presidential campaigns put it more bluntly, previewing the potential line of attack: "They aided and abetted the implementation of Obamacare, and they were just as complicit in making Obamacare work as Democrats in Congress or Barack Obama himself."

When Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday that his state had reached an agreement with the administration to expand Medicaid , the Republican went to great lengths to not acknowledge that the action had much, if anything, to do with Obamacare. For good measure, he added in a bit about how much he hated the law and was still committed to seeing it repealed. There he exposed the gulf between good governance and Republican politics, doing the best thing for his state's people and budget versus making a rabid voting base happy. It's a dance plenty of Republicans have been doing lately.The "unique" and "alternative" approaches are what all the red state governors have done, not so unique. But it's important for these guys to try to sell their plans as crafted specially for their own states, a "Utah solution" or a "Tennessee solution," or in the case of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) "an Iowa plan that fits the health needs of our state." Any Republican who wants a future in politics has to do this dance, and that's particularly true of someone like Pence, who has presidential aspirations. But all these verbal gymnastics aren't going to work Being a responsible governor addressing a crisis in your state with the most straightforward and least expensive policy is clearly not going to impress Republican presidential primary voters. The only litmus test is irrationally fighting against progress, and hating President Obama.