Thoughts on Fancy Farm
Matt Gunterman August 5th, 2007
First, commenter Phantom Scribe on my previous post notes that Bill Bartleman in Sunday’s Paducah Sun is claiming that the crowd at Fancy Farm was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. If Bartleman is indeed claiming that (and the Sun is subscription only, so not link), that’s not only disingenuous, but a lie. Shawn below puts the number at conservatively 4 to 1, and I’d say it was 5 to 1, but even the conservative blogosphere is saying it was 3 to 1. Commenter Isaac Shelby on Shawn’s post has this to say.
I checked the conservative blogs to see what estimates they had for the crowd. Elendil’s Journal had this to say, “03:35:28 PM David Williams is being introduced as masters of ceremony.. Lots of cheers and boos. The Republicans are outnumbered 3 to 1 but they are holding their own.”
So, Bill, what’s up, if you’re so out of touch with the atmosphere and environment of Fancy Farm, how much stock should we put in your political analysis generally?
Second, further evidence that the Democratic presence was unprecedented for Fancy Farm: the Democratic party breakfast at Mayfield High School had a record attendance. Are you still sticking by your story, Bill?
Third, and this was Shawn’s observation at Fancy Farm and I’m highlighting because I think it was a good one: anti-war Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul had an impressive organization at Fancy Farm. In fact, the campaign to “Support Our Troops / End the War” was extremely popular at the event. I was amazed to see 60 year old men and women asking 25 year old activists for every pro-end-of-war sticker and sign they could provide. It truly was an amazing sight. I’ve been at Fancy Farms since 1992, and I’ve never witnessed such a motivated and activist crowd. That’s one of the biggest stories to come out of Fancy Farm this year, quite frankly: even in rural Kentucky, the movement to end Bush’s endless and futile war is gaining in momentum. Senator Mitch McConnell was visibly shaken in his speech by the response.
Fourth, what was the worst speech, in my opinion, of the event? Robbie Rudolph, who really showed that he lacks all education and refinement. It was embarrassing. If indicted Governor Ernie Fletcher didn’t have all the baggage and scandal he does, he’d still deserve to lose the election simply because there’s no way that a man so stupid and redneck-ish should be a heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. What was the strangest speech? Republican attorney general candidate Representative Stan Lee who declared to Democrats that they should, “Fear the ’stache!” (for those of you unfamiliar with Lee’s appearance, he’s a fundamentalist Christian who looks like a 1970’s porn star). He just gave Democrats a GREAT t-shirt with that comment. We should fear the ’stache, indeed, because he’s loony.
Fifth, it was really, really great to meet so many of you and put faces and real names to commenter handles and people I’ve been working with for quite some time now. For instance, Jim Pence and I had never met in person until this weekend. Shawn met Cliff Schecter and Joe Sonka at YearlyKos this weekend, and I’ve yet to meet either Cliff or Joe. Shawn and I, of course, get together with some frequency since we’re both in the greater NYC area. I haven’t met Terri yet, either.
PS: The Kentucky Women blog has excellent Fancy Farm coverage and content, too.
- 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Fancy Farm 2007 , Republican Party Decline
- Comments(13)
He did *not* say, “Fear the ’stache!” Was he wearing this when he said it? Because that certainly would put the fear of the ’stache in this lady.
You are absolutely right about Robbie Rudolph’s speech. He was a disaster for the Republicans. I’m not sure what was more embarrassing, the fact that it was an incoherent speech or because he simply couldn’t read it off the page in front of him.
I have an online subscription to the Paducah Sun - the entire story is pasted below. Bartleman did claim the crowd was split 50-50. But I wasn’t surprised; the Paxtons seldom let truth get in the way of their propoganda machine.
Fancy Farm
Candidates Fletcher, Beshear go on the offensive
By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com–270.575.8651
Sunday, August 05, 2007
FANCY FARM, Ky. — The battle lines were drawn Saturday as Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Democratic challenger Steve Beshear tossed their heaviest artillery yet in their political war to determine who will be the next governor.
Fletcher made it clear at the 127th annual Fancy Farm Picnic that he’ll focus on Beshear’s record as attorney general and support of casino gambling.
Beshear left little doubt he’ll be analyzing the Fletcher administration’s performance that he said has been dismal, and the 18-month investigation of his administration’s hiring practices that resulted in 29 indictments against Fletcher and his appointees.
The general election is Nov. 6.
The two were joined by most of the state’s other top politicians for the traditional kickoff for the fall elections. The political speaking — almost as popular as the 10 tons of barbecue that was served — lasted more than two hours.
Even though temperatures soared near 100 degrees, it was the largest crowd in at least four years as more than 3,500 people gathered around the speaking platform. By the end of the day, more than 10,000 people had visited the picnic grounds for the fundraising sponsored by St. Jerome Catholic Church.
The political crowd was divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. Although there was some heckling, cheering and chanting, the crowd for the most part was well behaved. None of the speakers were interrupted to the extent that it prevented their messages from being heard.
Fletcher pounded Beshear for his promotion of casino gambling as a means of balancing the budget, expanding educational opportunities and funding new programs, and for his action as attorney general 26 years ago in ordering that the Ten Commandments be removed from school classrooms and public buildings.
He also said that as attorney general, Beshear was not a strong advocate for the rights of gun owners and supported some gun controls. “You’ll need a really big sling shot if you are going to bag a deer under the Steve Beshear regime,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said legalizing casino gambling would lead to broken families, addiction, divorce and senior citizens gambling away their life savings.
He said Beshear has estimated $1.5 billion annually would be spent on casinos in Kentucky.
“That’s $1.5 million that won’t be spent in local restaurants and stores … and taken out of the local economy,” he said. He said $1 billion would be corporate profits that would be sent to casino companies in Las Vegas.
“‘Easy Money Steve’ offers you nothing but a grand scheme to fund all of his false promises,” Fletcher said.
Beshear loaded his own verbal rifle and aimed criticism at Fletcher, who in 2003 became the state’s first Republican governor in 32 years. He said that since Fletcher took office, the state has fallen further behind the rest of the nation in several economic performance categories.
In his most stinging comment, he said under Fletcher’s leadership the state has had “more indictments, more pardons and more times that the governor has taken the 5th Amendment … than any other state in this country.”
That was a reference to the investigation of the Fletcher administration’s hiring practices. Although 29 indictments were returned, no trials were held because of a blanket pardon order by Fletcher for everyone but himself.
The governor also was indicted but his misdemeanor charges were dismissed as part of an agreement with Attorney General Greg Stumbo.
Fletcher said the investigation was politically motivated. He quipped that he was glad that Stumbo could be at Fancy Farm “after teaching at the Mike Nifong political witch hunt school.”
Nifong was the North Carolina prosecutor who charged members of the Duke University lacrosse team with rape. Nifong was disbarred after it was determined the charges were unfounded.
Beshear launched a strong defense of his support of a referendum to allow limited gambling at race tracks and a few other locations. He said Fletcher overemphasizes problems that would be caused by allowing casinos, such as crime problems that plague Las Vegas.
“They have casinos across the river in Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia,” Beshear said. “Do they look like Las Vegas?”
Beshear said Kentuckians are already spending millions at casinos in neighboring states. He said if that money was being spent at Kentucky casinos, it would raise state revenue to fund schools, roads and health care.
Beshear also defended his order as attorney general in 1981 to remove the Ten Commandments from schools and public buildings. He said he was only following a legal ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I obeyed he law,” he said. “As governor I’ll obey the law, too. And wouldn’t that be a great change if we had a governor who would obey the law for a change?”
Regarding the Ten Commandments, he said, “It is not so important where you hang them, but it is important that you live by them. If this administration had been living by them, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in now.”
The Fletcher campaign, meanwhile, used props and gimmicks to make its points. A float portraying “Beshearville” was parked behind the speaker’s platform. It showed a payday lending business, a casino, boarded up family businesses and a sign depicting a declining population.
It also had people in the crowd to help Fletcher make his points. When he talked about the removal of the Ten Commandments, someone appeared dressed as Moses; when he talked about the grand jury investigation being a witch hunt, a woman dressed as a witch appeared, and when he talked about gambling someone dressed in a plaid suit appeared to depict a hotshot gambler.
The two gubernatorial candidates also got help from other party leaders who spoke.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell used his five minutes to support Fletcher and attack Beshear, while Stumbo used his allotted time to attack Fletcher.
All staff photographs are available for purchase.
Please call 270-575-8682 or 270-575-8683.
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Saturday Stan Lee looked like a very bad case of metastatic carcinoma unleashed in his wasted body. Beyond his occasional lapses into self rightous judgement, the guy doesn’t look physically up for a tough AG job.
you can watch all the speech on ket
http://www.ket.org/fancyfarm/
Great stuff guys, wish I could’ve been there!!!
I’ll have my YearlyKos report up tomorrow. Believe me, people KNOW what we’re doing here, and they like it.
Someone sent me your post regarding The Paducah Sun’s coverage of the Fancy Farm Picnic. After a Google search, I finally found your website. From my observation, the crowd was close to 50-50. I was sitting on he platform where the band plays. It was based on observing signs and crowd reaction in the stands and on the ground in front. Other reporters on the platform agree the division was 50-50. It was an accurate, unbiased estimate. I’m sure you and those who post on your website are not influenced by your political views. It certainly was closer to 50-50 than it was 5 to 1 or even 4 to 1.
The crowd at the Democratic breakfast was the largest in recent years, but I’ve seen larger. There have been times when people had to wait for tables to eat breakfast. It wasn’t a record, and if you had knowledge of the history of the event you would know that. Also, the crowd at the Republican breakfast was down from previous years.
You are correct that Robbie Rudolph is not a great speaker. I don’t know that he had the worse speech, though. Fletcher delivered one of his best speeches ever at Fancy Farm and Beasher did an excellent job of laying out his platform and did a good job on the issue of the Ten Commandments. I liked his line “It is not where you hang them but whether you practice them.” I also liked a couple of lines from Republicans but there’s no need to mention they on this Democratic blog.
You may not understand how a newspaper works. Views of the management and ownership of the paper are expressed on the editorial page. Opinions by their very nature biased. It is true The Paducah Sun’s views are conservative the same as the views of The Courier-Journal are liberal. It is the right of each paper to have a viewpoint. But don’t confuse the views on the editorial pages with the new stories that are published in either paper. The news stories are a reflection of events that are covered and not the political views of editorial writers.
Political debate is an entertaining sport especially with the growth of Internet blogs like this one. It gives people an oportunity to read a wide range of views. Some of which are worth reading but some are so far off the wall that they aren’t worth the effort to click the mouse.
Political Blogs are slanted but they also raise some valid viewpoints on all sides of issues that people need to know in forming their own views and in deciding who to vote for. The influence in the political process is expanding and will in the future, especially in next year’s political race.
Bill, you conveniently ignore the remarks from conservative bloggers about the disproportionate nature of the crowd in favor of the Democrats. I haven’t heard ANY other mainstream reporter officially and publicly make the claim of 50/50 that you made. So, until they’re willing to go on record and state it, I don’t really care that your anonymous sources back you up on this claim.
The fact that you had to hunt for this blog, which is probably about the third most trafficked blog in the state after the Herald-Leader’s PolWatchers and Mark Nickolas’s BluegrassReport tells me you’re not a connoisseur of the medium. For future reference, PolWatchers links to us directly, as does pretty much every progressive blog.
Of course, we would probably know more about the quality of your paper’s reporting if it weren’t behind a subscription wall. As I’m sure you’re aware, even papers like the New York Times are dropping that hurdle.
what about the crowed that was to the right out under the trees no seats
were they afraid to go near fletcher booth!!!
http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/kilowat1946/?action=view¤t=fancyfarmpicnic222.jpg1.jpg
I’m not conveniently ignoring anything. I was there and know what I saw. I just went back and looked at some photos and based n the signs and sickers, the crowd still appears to be balanced. Looking from the stage, the Republiacns were on the left and Democrats on the right.
Now, if you went out in the crowd of and counted those who were not watching and listening the political speaking, I’d agree the crowd was less than 50 50 since the event was held in western kentucky where registered Republicans are hard to find . But among those who were yelling and screaming and listening, …. it was 50 50. You are only fooling yourself if ou think it was 5 to 1.
You are correct. I am not a connoisseur of blogs. I read and enjoy Bluegassreport where some valid and thought provoking issues are raised. (Many also are not valid.) I’ve been navigating through your site today (which I can do since I’m not a state worker) and find some interesting stuff… obviously slanted, biased and one sided, but interesting.
I think it’s interesting, Bill, that, throughout your response here, you’ve felt compelled, perhaps neurotically compelled, to “interpret” this medium for us, as if we don’t know ourselves what the medium is. I can promise you, as I built the architecture of the blog, designed the template on Photoshop, and have contributed something on the order of 100,000 words in five months or so, all while writing a popular press book and finishing my dissertation, I fully understand the nature of the medium, its strengths and its biases.
You are the only person who has publicly stated that the crowd was 50/50 and you are wrong. All the bloggers on the left and right agree that, objectively, the Democratic activists outnumbered the Republican by a factor or more.
However, I will retract my statement that you claim was a lie and simply chalk it up to poor eyesight and hearing in your old age.
Mr. mitch the son of a bitch, in my opinion is a traitor to his Country, this past summer he supported amnesty for illegal alliens/ criminals with no regards to what the people of KY wanted. That son of a whore has to go. He did end up voting against this, but only did so because he already knew it was going down in defeat.
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