This is a good statement! https://t.co/J2lm91Lf90
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 30, 2023
For around three decades now, the Hutchinsons have been the most powerful
political family in Arkansas. I have never called any of them overly
principled, but they do tend to be smart, none more so than Asa.
Hutchinson is in a sense doing the opposite of nearly
every other prominent National Republican. While almost everyone else
is embracing more and more toxic positions in an attempt to out Trump Tump, Hutchinson has for the past few years relied
on his solid conservative bonafides to allow him to step back from these
unpopular stands while keeping his support from the base. By the
admittedly insane standards of 2023, while the rest of the competition
has chained themselves to stances that poll in the mid thirties to high
teens, he has done a remarkably good job of setting himself up as the
reasonable and electable conservative.
Hutchinson is making a
long shot bet here, but it's a smart one and he has been pursuing it
with a high degree of skill and success. If the fever does break
within the next 12 months and Republicans start thinking about the
election in terms of viable candidates and broadly popular appeal,
Hutchinson will be at or near the top of the list. The base will never
forgive Mitt Romney and, barring black swans, the general electorate is
highly unlikely to embrace the platform or elusive personal charms of
Ron DeSantis, but Asa appears to have hit the sweet spot.
Politico has a recent piece
on Hutchinson's old school Republican pitch. The policy sections are
well reported. The political analysis is considerably weaker. It buys
into the assumption made by pretty much all the candidates except
Hutchinson that the GOP can somehow get rid of Trump without losing
Trump voters. I've always been skeptical of the party's chances of
pulling that one off.
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