I guess we will find out who is dumber, the voters in Kentucky or the national political press corp. Mitch McConnell is asking the voters in Kentucky to believe that ObamaCare can be repealed “root and branch” without it negatively affecting the health care coverage that at least 10% of Kentuckians are getting from the state’s Kynect health care exchange. But Kynect and ObamaCare are synonymous.
Meanwhile, the national press is having a field day over Alison Lundergan Grimes’ refusal to say whether or not she voted for President Obama. Chuck Todd said that she had disqualified herself for office by refusing to answer this question.
We all know that both of these issues are racial. You can have your health care as long as you don’t give the black guy credit for providing it to you.
You can serve Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, but not if you voted for the black president.
I’m sorry, but this is bullshit.
Look at Mitch McConnell’s record. He’s the one who has disqualified himself.
That’s a gimme put. The campaigns basically boil down to these two messages:
Mitch: That (n-word)-lover is literally Obama’s poodle
Alison: He has been in DC for 30 years and done nothing for Kentucky. I like to shoot guns and do other redneck shit because I’m true Kentucky.
We’ll see which message wins out, but my money is on Alison.
More recently, it’s just “did you vote for the n-word or not?”
Which is why turnout through GOTV and not messaging will determine the winner. GOTV must work in spite of the poor messaging that seeks to discourage the other side’s voters from voting. So Allison Lundegran Grimes’s GOTV effort has to turn out her white people. And minorities in Kentucky will have to provide a little bit of a firewall through high turnout.
But tell yourself this. Eric Cantor’s gone, taken down from the right. Time for Mitch McConnell to be gone as well. Are the folks on his right going to turn out or sit on their hands to punish the Senate GOP for not being agressive enough?
Even though I know it shouldn’t be “THE” issue it is, I just don’t know that the minorities in Kentucky will like the idea that candidate running for the Dem ticket isn’t willing to say she voted for Dem President who they still hold in high regard.
So Grimes may have ruined her chances with some minority voters already?
We’ll find out though.
Obama of course won’t campaign there, but I don’t see that Michelle is either. Michelle O has been the go to campaigner for Dem candidates who don’t seem to want to be seen with the President.
On Thursday, the President will be on a big national urban radio show, The Ricky Smiley Morning Show to talk about the midterms and other things. I believe that RSMS is heard in parts of Kentucky, so maybe this can be seen as a run around of having to actual campaign there. He can get to the minority vote without having to step foot in the state.
I guess since she calls herself a “Clinton Democrat” she could get the Clintons back to campaign again, but what people are not realizing is that the Clintons don’t have the same pull with minority voters, particularly Black voters they once had. I mean the Clintons still get big numbers, but I just don’t think Clintons telling folk to GOTV really motivates them more than Obama saying the same.
It’s shocking that folks don’t have any idea about the origins of their Kynect health insurance.
It’s only shocking if you expect people to live examined lives…
Said differently, how many people still believe that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11?
If it works why bother to think anymore about it? If it doesn’t vote against incumbents and why bother to think anymore about it?
This essentially defines American politics.
So, has Chuck Todd said that Jodi Ernst has “disqualified herself” for the dozen ridiculous comments she has made?
How about Scott Brown? Jumping states not silly enough for you, Chuckles?
One could make a very long list here.
Fuck Chuck Todd.
McConnell’s duplicity is shameful. Outright deception should be disqualifying. Serving the interests of his party at the expense of the country – as he has done since ’09 – is traitorous. But he is counting on ignorance that is fairly widespread. Recently Joe Biden visited Portland, and the Oregonian asked 20 people on the street if they knew who he is. Only 11 did – which was a better response than what a TV host got in L.A. Our real battle is with indifference and cynicism.
McConnell’s is a liar! everyone know about this shit… User:gsp56 have a right!
______________
cheats for android
It’s not stupidity when the national media puts its finger on the scale. Chuck Todd was rewarding the people who promoted him to Meet the Press. Little Russ used to do it all the time, but no one seemed to care back in the 1990s.
It’s not stupidity; it’s corruption.
As for the people of Kentucky, who’s going to tell them the truth who also has credibility with them? That’s the insidious element of conservative preachers, talkers like Rush Limbaugh, and other propagandists asking their acolytes to excommunicate those in their personal networks with differing views unless they get commie cooties. It turns the political conversation into who has the most humongous marketing clout–and of course its the folks with the most money.
Oh, gimme a break, honestly. She had 2-3 months before Todd and screwed the pooch totally during that time. What she needed to do was TAKE KYNECT and MAKE IT A WINNING ISSUE. But NNOOOOOOOOOOO…. She is a weasel, and has no courage.
All of that might be true, but Todd’s question wasn’t a matter of stupidity. If he wanted to put her on the spot, he could have pushed her on KYNECT. I thought the secret ballot point was an excellent one to raise in response. Even as a candidate how she voted is indeed none of Chuck Todd’s business.
What matters is what is going on on the ground in terms of building higher levels of Democratic turnout on election day.
The problem in midterms is not as much convincing people to vote for you as convincing the ones who are convinced to get their bodies to follow what they have decided. She just need 50% plus one vote of those more than McConnell.
Having McConnell not scared of being beat could help rather than hurt.
But I notice that after the debates the GOP has suddenly gotten scared enough to put a $1 million back in Kentucky.
The MSM goes for low-hanging fruit with candidates for the WH and Senate, particularly but not exclusively Democratic candidates. Any candidate that doesn’t know that and isn’t prepared isn’t ready for prime time.
Did you defend Palin when she cried foul after her Schiffer and Couric puffball interviews? Doubt it.
Voters admire a politician who has principle. They don’t admire a weasel.
Grimes is a weasel.
She had a shot. She isn’t going to win.
Harsh. Unfortunately more objective/realistic than what most liberals/Democrats observing and commenting on the race are able to recognize. Although, McConnell is also a weasel, but is experienced enough that it’s not obvious to voters that pay little attention.
Watching a few minutes of the McConnell/Grimes debate was discouraging. Mitch was slick and in command. Grimes had neither game nor a compelling message. My laundry list of the visual errors she made in the debate wouldn’t be much different from those made by Carly Fiorina in her debate with Barbara Boxer. (Boxer cleaned Fiorina’s clock in the debate.) However, Firoina was running on nothing other than being a Republican in a very “blue” state and therefore, going in had almost zero chance to beat an incumbent DEM.
McConnell won his last re-election contest by a five percentage points smaller margin than Boxer won her’s in 2004 (outperforming Kerry in CA by almost three percentage points). So, on paper McConnell was more vulnerable. Not sure why she didn’t go with 1) McConnell has done nothing for KY (is hardly ever even in KY) and 2) hugged Steve Beshear and KyNect.
The entire fucking Democratic Party is a weasel on Obamacare. By failing to mount a spirited defense of this excellent program (which Paul Krugman has done in a recent piece), they have ceded the ground to the Repukes, who have no scruples at taking out the Dems.
The reasons why we needed O-care were many:
These are OBVIOUS winners. And yet these feckless weasels have taken a decent hand and just fucked it up royally. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in SD lost to a total moron because she would not defend O-care. Time and time again, failure to defend the program spiritedly has led to defeat. Morons.
Of course she’s a weasel – you don’t send a girl scout into a knife fight. If integrity mattered in Kentucky elections Rand Paul would not be a senator. Grimes will be ok.
My point, and possibly dataguy’s, is that they did send a girl scout into a knife fight. Seriously, she’s running a campaign that is closer to “I’m not Mitch” than anything else. That works for a large part of the KY electorate. Unfortunately, she needs a majority.
“I’m not Mitch” coupled with “I’m not Obama’s bitch” is a winning message in Kentucky, GOTV permitting. Right now it looks good from the ground – we’ll see on November 4th.
Only 12% minority in KY and less than 8% Black. But you’re probably correct and the minorities will overlook Grime’s fear of the associating with a Black POTUS. Sorry, this is as ugly and spineless as what team Hillary pulled in NH in 2008. And then she and Bill acted all insulted when SC Black voters noticed and quickly abandoned her.
Nah, not even close. If she replied to the inquests about her vote with, “Of course I didn’t vote for that Kenyan usurper” then we could compare to Hillary ’08, but what she’s done so far is to avoid being directly tied to Obama, a wise course of action in Kentucky.
HuffPoDSCC Stops Running Ads In Kentucky Senate Race
If I hadn’t seen part of that debate, I would probably view this DSCC move as another time when they blinked or wimped out. Sad, but IMHO, they made the right call on this one.
Is undocumented immigration an issue for the mushy middle in KY? Does it even on the radar screen for rightwingers in KY?
Who is writing Grimes’ scripts?
It is in Appalachia – “those others” (even though they’ve likely never seen anyone from Mexico let alone an illegal immigrant) always make easy fodder in places where indoor plumbing is a bit of a novelty…
Well that is patently wrong. If one is here legally, then how can one be an illegal immigrant. It’s typical of her to refer to all immigrants as illegal. Only those here contrary to federal law are illegal.
They made the right call because the air game won’t move the electorate at this point. It’s all about mobilizing the decideds at this point, and we have the better ground game (at least in Louisville, although I suspect the same is true in Paducah and eastern Kentucky as well).
I’m sorry. I usually bite my tongue before general elections not to discourage those that are working diligently on behalf of a particular Democratic candidate. Around Republicans in 2008 and 2012 wouldn’t have been reluctant to say that their candidate didn’t have a chance.
I’ve also been known to tout the chances of Democratic candidates that other Democrats didn’t think could win or worried that they would lose. heh — I called the 2008 election in January 2008 and the 2012 election at least in year earlier than that.
I won’t mind in the least being wrong on this one; although it will screw up my track record.
I was disgusted that she didn’t say “yes.”
I was disappointed that she didn’t ask Mitch if he’d voted for a President who traitorously dealt guns for hostages.
Exactly!! There are plenty of ways she could have handled it. Obama got OBL, not C+ Augustus. The list goes on.