Here you go. Inslee wins. Pressed repeatedly to say whether there should be a national effort, rather than let the states compete (and, as with Arkansas, lose out to other states on ventilators) Hutchinson simply said “this is the reality” and the federal government is a “backstop.” He just won’t diss Donald Trump, no matter how transparently stupid and dangerous this system is.


Inslee, on the other hand, said it was “ludicrous” that there wasn’t a national effort, as was the idea of a backstop. Imagine, he said, if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had said during World War II, “we’re backing you up, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships.”

Hutchinson continued to push his theme that Arkansas is “leaning into” guidelines (not rules) as strong or stronger than in other states. Out of the blue, he gigged Inslee, noting that residents in Washington, with its restrictions, may still buy marijuana. (So may residents of Arkansas, if their medical permits haven’t expired, a problem anti-pot Hutchinson won’t correct by extending the renewal period. And fear not, booze is so essential in Arkansas that Hutchinson erased the law that prohibited takeout sales by restaurants.)


Asa also appeared on Channel 7. There, he touched on something down the line, but credit him for future thinking, something Donald Trump will never do. The world is going to change after, he suggested. Think telemedicine, now an essential. The medical establishment has defeated it until now. Think higher education, now all on-line. Maybe we won’t need those big expensive buildings in the future, he suggested.

I don’t think he’s referring to $200 million football stadiums. We may go online, but I bet it won’t reduce the number of $200,000-plus administrators that are stacked up like cordwood around Arkansas.