By John Brummett

It’s been much too long since last we fired the fickle arrows of conventional wisdom.

The problem has been that the young man who knew how to import arrows for our Web site has departed. I fear the folderol to ensue as I and others try to figure out how he did it.

Typography just doesn’t interest me, sorry to say.

If you look on our site at arkansasnews.com and see no arrows, but only directional indications in parentheses, you’ll know we just gave up and headed for the turkey.

None of this should pose any problem for the newspapers, though. They’ve plugged in the arrows plenty of times before and they’re the ones who count most, at least for another generation, we can hope.

So here goes, with the usual proviso that conventional wisdom is more conventional than wise and that, in modern politics, what is true as I begin writing may no longer be true when I finish.

Barack Obama — It turns out he’s a conventional center-left politician, not an inspiring transformational leader. Accomplishments as yet? I’m thinking.

Mike Beebe — Most recently it was The Washington Post that posted an item about the best politician you never heard of nationally. What’s kind of charming is that Beebe says in the article that he doesn’t much like to travel and can’t imagine why anyone would want another job after governor. Apparently, Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee didn’t see it that way.

Mike Huckabee — He was going to be the lunatic right’s candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 until, lo and behold, Sarah Palin re-emerged to go all rogue-y on him.

Blanche Lincoln — Today she loses. Next November? Heck, she may lose then, too.

Vic Snyder — Can Pulaski County save him again? The only thing going for him is that his opponent is likely to be that decidedly unpleasant Karl Rovian operative who barged his way into a clumsily forced vacancy in the U.S. attorney’s job, by whom I mean Tim Griffin.

Mike Ross — Safely distanced from Obama in the 4th District, well-positioned to be the governor after Beebe in 2014.

Bill Halter — He won’t go away, no matter how much a lot of people wish he would.

Gilbert Baker — The Republican establishment has decided on him to challenge Lincoln. Meantime, the lunatic fringe’s laughable attacks on him as a liberal — in part because I get along with him and get quoted in his campaign literature — will serve only to make him seem more palatable in the general election.

Bobby Petrino — This is a seriously accomplished offensive coach. For his angry and profane manner on the sideline, I use offensive in more ways than one.

Ryan Mallett — I believe he is singularly the best pro prospect available to the next NFL draft. But, for some reason, I think he’s going to stay at Arkansas another year and deliver Petrino nine wins and maybe even a smile.

John Pelphrey — I know it’s conventional to praise him for the honorable action of those suspensions. But I’d prefer better behavior by his recruits in the first place and clearer indications — or the least indication at all — that he has the ability to lead this once-glorious basketball program back to where it once was.

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery — It’s a smash, baby.

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John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699.