Who would of thought, right here in Red State Kentucky people would line up for blocks to to see Barack Obama?
I can tell you it occurred and and I have photos and video to prove it.
Click here to view photos of regular folks going to the Obama event.
The event attracted so many Kentucky folks that a 1000 seat overflow was set up with closed circuit TV, but that was not enough. Some folks still had to be turned away.
I’m a 68 year old man and I’m here to tell you that what occurred here in Kentucky was a “Happening“, or as a person my age might call a “Hootenanny” bigger and better than anything I’ve ever seen here in Kentucky!!!!
I have put together videos of the event, Congressman Ben Chandler speaking at the event and a short edited version of Barack Obama speaking at the event. Click here to view the entire speech.
A special thanks to all the folks that helped this lowly Kentucky blogger get a press pass to the event.
Today, I’m one very proud Kentuckian!!!!!!!
Enjoy

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Albert Benjamin “Happy” Chandler, Sr. did the right thing in 1947 and , in my opinion, his grandson Ben Chandler did the right thing today.
I was proud of Happy Chandler in 1947 and I was proud of Ben today. For me, it was a good day to be a Kentuckian!!!!

Congressman John Yarmuth introducing Ben Chandler.

Congressman Ben Chandler endorsing Barack Obama.

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You no doubt all seen the new Herald-Leader commissioned poll that finds the support of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) to continue its fast-paced erosion.

In short, it finds that McConnell’s unpopularity is now surpassing his popularity, and that all his potential Democratic opponents are sitting very pretty a year out from the election.

Here’s the quick breakdown:

McConnell v. Chandler: 46/41
McConnell v. Luallen: 45/40
McConnell v. Stumbo: 46/37
McConnell v. Horne: 45/34

What are the most telling findings of the polling?

First, that McConnell never gets above 46 percent support against any of the Democrats. Second, that that’s the case even against Horne, whose inclusion in the polling essentially represents — because of what I suspect is low name recognition across the state — the equivalent of “generic Democrat.” A majority of Kentuckians don’t want to vote for McConnell.

What’s the most inane comment in the H-L article? This one from Danny Briscoe:

[…]

Although Chandler and Luallen showed the same deficit to McConnell, Chandler is better off because he’s already endured barrages of harsh ads during the 2003 election, said Danny Briscoe, a Democratic campaign consultant.

“Ben Chandler’s had millions of dollars attacking him, Crit Luallen’s never taken a punch,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine if she had millions attacking her that she’d be in the position she’s in now.”

[…]

This makes no sense. Then why is Chandler sitting in the position he’s sitting in, even after the millions of dollars spent attacking him? Are we to imagine that negative advertising takes a person a set distance from some base? Did Chandler start professional life at something like 70 percent, and after decades of negative advertising he’s been eroded to 41 percent against McConnell? Because, you know, there’s never been a case in all of electoral history where a challenger defeated an incumbent by surviving (and actually gaining popularity) in the face of his or her rival’s relentless negative attacks.

Where do they find these inane people?

Plus, I’ve heard lots of people argue — and not that I agree with it — that a strength of a Luallen candidacy is that it’s harder to relentlessly attack a woman. I’m not so sure about that. It might be hard to attack them in the conventional sense, but there are ways of undermining people’s confidence by playing on stereotypes, whisper campaigns, and the like.

The thing to keep in mind here, I think, is the case of Sen. Jim Webb (D) of Virginia. In 2006, Webb’s incumbent opponent Sen. George Allen (R) outspent Webb $19 million to $8.5 million.

In June of 2006, six months out from the election, Webb still trailed Allen 56 percent to 37 percent.

So, neither Horne, Stumbo, Luallen, or Chandler is in a bad position.

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As you’ve no doubt heard by now, WKYT’s Bill Bryant reports that Democratic Representative Ben Chandler (KY-06) isn’t ruling out a run against Senator Mitch McConnell just yet.

I tend to share the sentiment of WHAS’s Mark Hebert on this one, “it ain’t gonna happen,” but it’s nice to think about.

I think one of the big political dangers for Chandler in waiting for a 2010 contest against the extremely vulnerable Senator Jim Bunning (R) is that Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo (D) will probably have his eyes on a rematch against Bunning, and my gut tells me in a two-way primary Mongiardo would defeat Chandler.

Voters would see a replay of 2004 as “good karma” and, should the race against McConnell be close in 2008 but fall short for the Democrat, the progressive base of the party might well hold it against Chandler that he didn’t jump in and fight the good fight when the party needed him.

Hebert also notes that Republican Larry Forgy is not ruling out a primary challenge against McConnell. In fact, from Hebert’s post, you can tell that there’s no love lost between these two:

[…]

Larry Forgy wouldn’t rule out, or in, a run against Mitch McConnell next year when I asked him about that prospect at the Fancy Farm picnic. Forgy says he’s glad to hear McConnell is helping Gov. Fletcher’s reelection bid and the senator’s help is really needed in Jefferson County where Fletcher is particularly weak. In response, McConnell told reporters “I have nothing to say to Larry Forgy.”

[…]

What’s the significance of all these possibilities, other than whetting the appetites of political junkies?

I’d say that the story is this: despite all that money McConnell brags about, both Democrats and Republicans aren’t fearful of McConnell; the smell of opportunity is in the air, and that smell is the rotting political corpse of Mitch McConnell’s political brand.

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(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Tomorrow at 2:00, six Congressmen, all former prosecutors, are holding a press conference to announce their resolution for the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached.

The resolution is sponsored by Jay Inslee (D-WA) and co-sponsored by Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Michael A. Arcuri (D-NY), Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Bruce Braley (D-IA) and, I’m proud to say, our own Rep. Ben Chandler.

It’s good to see Ben stand up for the rule of law and against the mockery that the Bush administration has made of our Justice Department.

Go give him some love.

(h/t our departed KY blogmaster)

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The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act by a 223 to 201 margin. See the roll call vote here.

Kentucky Democrats are proud of Representatives Ben Chandler (KY-04) and John Yarmuth (KY-03) for numbering among the strong majority of members to support this legislation that gives our troops the support they need to come home safely.

Kentucky’s Republican members of Congress voted yet again to enable the crazy, delusional agenda of President George W. Bush, who’s approval has sunk to the levels of Richard Nixon as his failed policies are strengthening terrorists worldwide, over-stretching our armed forces, pushing the American economy to the breaking point, and making government come to a grinding halt as the American people struggle.

Make sure to thank both Reps. Chandler and Yarmuth for their support of our troops and bringing a responsible end to the war in Iraq!

Use the comment section on this post to do so, if you want.

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Why is Senator Mitch McConnell running scared as of late? Why is Sen. McConnell supporting every piece of racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-science, anti-working families, anti-senior citizens piece of legislation and cause out there? Because it pleases his crazy, foaming-at-the-mouth base of political supporters and he needs them to shore up his poll numbers. And thanks to Senator Chuck Schumer, we now know what those polls numbers are and how bad they’re looking for ol’ McConnell:

Mikal Watts Raises Texas Record for DSCC: $1.1 Million
by Glen Maxey

Democratic activist and fundraiser Mikal Watts was asked by Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee to raise $150,000 for the committee looking to win a filibuster proof US Senate in 2008.

Shocking the DSCC leadership, the gathering at Watts’ San Antonio home doubled the record for a DSCC fundraiser in Texas- raising a whopping $1.1 million.

The event, headlined by Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), Sen. Ken Salazar (CO) and Robert Menendez (NJ) was packed with Democrats from all corners of Texas, including Congressmen Charlie Gonzalez, Ciro Rodriguez, Solomon Ortiz, Nick Lampson and a healthy contingent of Texas state legislators.

[…]

The other states that Schumer put into the top tier were blue states with Republican Senators: Oregon, Maine, New Hampshire, Colorado and Minnesota.

He cited a recent series of polls showing matchups of potential Democratic candidates vs. the Republican incumbent. He specifically pointed out polls in Kentucky, a traditionally very red state, where Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell resides. In a hypothetical heads up race between McConnell and the Democratic candidate Congressman Ben Chandler, the result was a stunning 45% to 44%. In a second question tying the Republican to support for George Bush and the war in Iraq, the race turned into a Democratic 55% to McConnell 42% shocker. Schumer flatly stated that the same kinds of results are seen even in states like North Carolina and Mississippi.

[…]

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Yesterday, Ted Shlechter over at The Bridge launched a petition to recruit Representative Ben Chandler into the 2008 U.S. Senate race against Senator Mitch McConnell.

I think this petition is a healthy thing. I support it. I will be signing it.

Right now, obviously, there is no Democratic candidate, and we Democrats have an interest in hearing first from the strongest, most popular Democrat in the state. By everyone’s account that’s Rep. Ben Chandler. There’s a lot of speculation around the state about who might run, and officially knowing who’s not going to run is pretty important at this stage, too.

For those of the readership who might not know why Rep. Chandler is so popular at the moment, the roots lie in the 2003 Kentucky gubernatorial election. Sen. Mitch McConnell hand-selected then Rep. Ernie Fletcher to run against then Attorney General Ben Chandler. To make a very long story short, Sen. McConnell used his smear machine against Ben Chandler and ran Ernie Fletcher on a reform platform to “clean the mess up in Frankfort,” where a Republican hadn’t occupied the governor’s mansion in a generation (the only dealings Chandler had had with scandal in Frankfort during his tenure there was prosecuting it as attorney general).

At a time when the national Republican fervor was peaking (it’s now quickly waning thanks to George W. Bush), Fletcher won a comfortable victory in November 2003, but you will by now know that the administration of Governor Ernie Fletcher has proved to be a complete and utter disaster with scandal and incompetence at every turn. Four years later, there is a civil war raging within the Kentucky GOP as Sen. McConnell tries to kill off the monster he created by running recently defeated Rep. Anne Northup, a monster-in-waiting, against Gov. Fletcher in the Republican primary this May.

In the meantime, Kentuckians have had time to see through the fog of political war, and they now see Rep. Ben Chandler as the principled, honorable, and fair man he’s always been.

Rep. Ben Chandler would be impervious to the attacks of the McConnell machine a second time around, and there would be a certain cosmic justice if the two could go head-to-head in this one. As we’ve seen from Sen. McConnell’s recent performances as senate minority leader, the national spotlight is showing the man behind the curtain and he’s not terribly impressive. Chandler would run circles around him.

And, you know, as far as the petition is concerned, I never think it hurts to show good leaders a little love.

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