Fancy Farm - Live Blog Part II (Updated Analysis)

02:18:32 PM A little while ago, the Bluegrass band, No Tools Loaned, played Carroll Hubbard's campaign song - "We're in the Jailhouse Now"

02:18:57 PM I have to give credit to my wife for that one. It made me laugh.

02:20:08 PM We are about an hour away from the speeches and the place is already crowded.

02:23:00 PM I was reminiscing earlier about the good ole days of Fancy Farm. In those days the media was in the back and the crowd was mere feet from the speakers. Now the media is up front and the crowd is all seated behind them. It is almost become a civilized affair.

02:28:30 PM And so the street show begins. McConnell has a bunch of people dressed as oil sheiks. They have signs saying I heart Bruce Lunsford and Hugo Chavez hearts Bruce Lunsford. Pretty funny. And the Republican crowd went nuts.

02:28:30 PM Chants of 6 more years have started.

02:28:33 PM Ditch Mitch chants started and died almost immediately

02:30:01 PM I always love McConnell's street theater. It is definitely worth coming down here to watch it.

02:46:01 PM The Blue Grass band has finished playing and they are starting the program . They are currently presenting the Pioneer Awards

02:48:42 PM The seats up on the stage is starting to fill in, but none of the speakers have sat down yet.

02:53:47 PM Sen Bunning is the first to appear on the stage.

02:53:49 PM Lunsford has his own street theatre here, but it doesn't make any sense. They have a person dressed up as Darth Vader wearing a McConnell mask. They have someone dressed as a Cowboy wearing a McConnell mask. They have another person dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wearing a McConnell mask. I really have no idea what they are supposed to represent. Even the Democrat next to me had no clue what they were for. The last two were a person wearing a Bush mask followed by a person in a dog costume wearing a McConnell mask. I actually get that one. McConnell is the lap dog for Bush. All in all it is very confusing and is not obvious. Lunsford's crew gets a D- for street theater.

02:54:28 PM I feel sorry for the poor girl in the dog suit. That has to be hot. It is well over 90 degrees and she is in a full dog suit.

02:55:18 PM McConnell shows up to chants of 6 more years start up again.

02:57:38 PM The crowd is definitely primed to go.

02:59:03 PM Both sides are chanting now. The place is rocking.

03:00:35 PM Whitfield is here. Not really sure where the Democrat speakers are.

03:01:16 PM The Dems are all up there now.

03:07:05 PM Time for opening prayer

03:13:04 PM Now we sing My Old Kentucky Home

03:16:46 PM Followed by the National Anthem

03:18:55 PM House Majority Leader Rocky Atkins is the master of ceremonies. He is talking about the history of Fancy Farm and its place in modern politics. He thinks the Fancy Farm picnic is what politics is all about. He is now going over the rules of the day. Some in the crowd shouted out "no felons on stage". I yelled out "No problem, Beshear would pardon them." The final rule is if you go over the 5 minutes allotted the band would start playing. People started yelling out "Strike up the band" to get Rocky to get on with the show. 

03:25:15 PM Beshear is the first speaker of the day. He started by saying the Republicans in the crowd should be dressed for a funeral. Because the Democrats are going to bury their candidates. Now he is pandering to Western Kentucky on how the Dems are going to take care of them. The crowd starts chanting "Grayson" during the speech. Beshear goes on to thank Bunning for showing up for the speeches. Bunning agreed to come after Beshear ensured him that he would call out the National Guard to protect him. That was pretty funny. Now Beshear is transitioning to how Republicans are destroying the middle class. This sounds a lot like Edward's two Americas speech. Ugh. He transitioned to say that Republicans are for Big Oil with more money going overseas. Wow, that was a big mistake. The Republicans immediately started changing "Drill Now". Ooops, way to play to the Republican's strength Beshear. He finishes his speech chiding Republicans for the way they treat returning veterans and their big spending habits and how we are ready to elect Democrats is a "sea of change".

03:33:48 PM That was a pretty good speech.

03:41:00 PM Lunsford was next after losing the coin toss. The first part of his speech is a screed to the woes of the middle class. He is talking about how the American dream and how he came from poor up bringing to make it. He is driveling on about how that dream is dying for people today. The crowd starts chanting "Booring" and "Three time loser". Lunsford finishes with an attack on McConnell for his failed leadership. That he cares more for special interests than the people of the state. He then asks if you are better off now than you were 6 years ago. I thought about it and have to say yes I am. 6 years ago we were in the middle of the down turn after 9/11. The stock market was still in the tank at that time. So yes we probably are better than we were 6 years ago.

03:46:26 PM McConnell spoke next and he got up to chants of "6 more years".  He immediately starts skewering the Democrats for high gas prices. He says that don't want to lower gas prices. Obama isn't sad about the high prices only on how fast the prices rose. "At least Bill Clinton would have felt your pain". A Dem staffer admitted that the Democrat's plan is to "drive small cars and wait for the wind". Obama says we can solve the problem by inflating our tires and getting a tune up. "So all we need is new tires and a trip to Jiffy Lube". He finishes his speech by a series of "yes we can statements". Drill for oil - yes we can. Nuclear power ("If the French can do it so can we") - yes we can. Coal to liquid - yes we can. Break our dependence on oil. We can find more and use less - yes we can. Good speech.

03:46:49 PM Bunning is next up to the podium. He starts talking about how the Democrats want to kill Kentucky's top energy source coal. Sen Leader Reid said "coal makes us sick". "They want to destroy our coal industry and Bruce Lunsford wants to join them." The Dems are chanting "No more lies". Now Bunning is going after Obama for wanting to implements Carter's taxes on Big Oil. We will get what we got back then: less oil production and more dependence on the Middle East. Obama / Lunsford want higher gas taxes. He then talks about Bruce's automatically adjusting tax that has cause a tax increase every summer since 2004. The crowd is now chanting "Thanks, Bruce". He ends his speech by saying that Lunsford should talk to Obama  about it in Lunsford's Chicago home. More red meat than I suspected Bunning. That was the best speech I have heard him give in a long time.

04:01:26 PM Heather Ryan lost the coin toss and went next. She was greeted by chants of "You are crazy". She began her speech talking about how this was a life long dream of hers. She got into the race because of McConnell because he is a scumbag. She won't sell out because she is one of us. The chants changed to "You don't matter". She then lambastes Ed "Exxon" Whitfield for getting rich off of oil companies. She reiterates that she won't be bought because she is one of us. Who does she think she is Eva Peron? Her speech would have been better if she didn't sound like she was screeching.

04:07:16 PM Ed Whitfield followed and started by asking why Ryan is running against him if she is so mad at McConnell. He then talks about how Pelosi, Reid, and Obama want to bring San Francisco and Chicago values to rural America. They want to deny the second amendment rights. They embrace Gore's energy plan. They want to end America's use of coil and oil. They want to outsource oil exploration to other countries. He then asks why we can't drill. Pelosi won't allow them to bring it to the floor for a vote. He then make reference to China drilling off our coast for Cuba because we won't. He finished the speech talking about how he is helping residents in Western Ky.

04:09:22 PM Mongiardo is next up and starts by saying that Lunsford is going to take out the puppet master while Ryan is going to take out the puppet. He followed that up with some attack on Bunning and little green men. I really don't know what he is talking about here. It almost sounds like he is still bitter from losing the senate race against him. He moves on to attacking McConnell. He calls him a partisan who only cares about fillibustering. He is a practicitioner of "dark politics of the past". Then he tries to end by stealing from McConnell with his own yes we can, but he went over the the time allotment. A rather strange speech.

04:15:29 PM Next up is Trey Grayson.

04:18:55 PM Greyson starts by saying the official drink for Democrats this year is Kool Aid. He then accuses Beshear of trying to steal his ideas. He says Beshear holds a press conference thinking about allowing a 4 day work week, and then the press comes down to Grayson's office to see how it is actually working.He then congratulates Mongiardo on his recent marriage and then says he is better at picking his wife than his successor in the senate. He then moves on to Bruce Lunsford and said he knew him before he ran for office. He called the latest version of Lunsford, Bruce 4.0. He says he liked version 1.0 better. Bruce 1.0 knew that taxes were bad for business. That public union ballots where un-American. Not to flip-flop on oil.That health is better managed by people than the government. He finished by saying we need people who lead and not talk about it. A surprisingly good speech from Greyson.

04:19:18 PM Todd Hollenbach is next up.

04:23:02 PM He starts his speech by referencing McConnell's first run for office and how McConnel went after Huddleston saying that two terms is enough. "If two terms is enough then five terms is too much:. I wonder if Hollenbach even remembers McConnell's first campaign. How old was he at the time? 10. How does he know what McConnell's message was at the time? The rest of his speech is about McConnell being bought by special interests. The most memorable part of the speech was when the crowd chanted "who are you?".

04:30:55 PM Carroll Hubbard was next an talked about local issues. How is he a candidate? He went to jail for corruption charges while a congressman.How is he the best candidate the Democrats can put forth?

04:33:30 PM Winters is the last speaker I am covering. He talked about local issues as well.

04:34:54 PM That about wraps up the live coverage.The Republicans all stayed on the on the same theme. They hammered the Democrats for blocking expanded oil exploration. It was fairly effective. The Democrats on the other hand didn't have a very coherent message. The only theme they hit with any regularity is that McConnell is bought by special interests. I didn't find the attacks very effective. Kind of like thier weak attempt at street theater.

04:52:56 PM One thing that wasn't surprising was the Democrat's avoidance of Obama. None of them talked about Obama with the exception of Beshear. They avoided him like the plague. He must really be more unpopular in this state than I originally thought.

04:53:28 PM Fun fact of the day: Republicans won all of the coin tosses.