It seemed as though Asa Hutchinson was unusually annoyed at his Thursday afternoon press conference. Whereas many politicians are usually annoyed--they use anger to their advantage--the governor of Arkansas is a cool cat. He has a calming presence. So when he appears irritated, it's noticed.
Apparently, before his daily news conference he had been interviewed by a program called 1A on NPR radio. The host of the program asked Gov. Hutchinson why he hadn't given a stay-at-home order for Arkansas, even though most governors in other states had.
So Asa Hutchinson politely explained. As he's done to the citizens of his state more than once:
The state has taken important steps to keep people away from each other.
Schools are closed.
As are hair salons, movie houses, bowling alleys, sit-down restaurant serving areas, gyms and the Buffalo National River.
Stay-at-home orders in other states aren't really stay-at-home orders. Because people still go to grocery stores, doctors' offices, their pharmacy, parks, etc. In fact, if he gave such an order today, 700,000 Arkansans would still get up to go to work the next morning--as nurses, doctors, truck drivers, electricians, lawyers, accountants, grocers, shelf-stockers and media types.
A stay-at-home order would, however, add 100,000 Arkansans to the unemployment rolls.
But if the health experts tell him to do so, and advise him to take another step in regard to the state's health, he will.
The host then asked: "Do you want to be the last governor in the country to impose a statewide stay-at-home order?"
Listening to the program, which we did Friday on NPR's website, it was apparent that the host had that question in the can and was going to ask it no matter how the governor explained his state's situation.
Instead of answering the way we would have, Asa Hutchinson kept his cool:
"Well, I think you just ignored everything I just said."
Actually, she may not have been listening. But the point was to ask the gotcha question. Not necessarily to inform the audience.
Editorial on 04/04/2020