Tuesday, 4 August 2009

Fancy Farm From Afar: Red Edition

The Republican side was more muted than the Democratic side. Most of the focus was on Obama and congressional Democrats. An easy target for a state that has decidedly rejected the national Democratic agenda on numerous occasions. While Grayson's theme of "because Kentucky knows better" was lame, he did deliver some nice lines.

Grayson called
the "cap and trade" legislation "a new energy tax levied every time you
start your car or flip on a light switch. It's anti-coal, and it's
anti-Kentucky."
He said it would cost Kentucky farmers and business owners at least $5 billion over the next 10 years.
"That
means higher utility bills, fewer jobs and less take-home pay. But
that's a liberal for you," Grayson said. "They'd rather punish
hard-working Kentuckians than force China or India to deal with their
own environmental records."

He even took a nice jab at his Democratic opponents.

Republican
Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who is expected to announce his
official campaign in a few weeks, said he congratulated Mongiardo and
Conway on additions to their families.
Daniel and Allison Mongiardo are expecting a child later this year, and Jack and Elizabeth Conway recently had a baby girl.
"You
all will love being parents," Grayson said. "The good news is that
babies eventually sleep regularly. The even better news is that after
November 2010, you will have plenty of time to spend with your
newborns."

Rand Paul on the other hand apparently doesn't know what party he is a member.

Paul criticized both parties for hypocicy, noting that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford ran touting family values and then took off to Argentina to meet his mistress.
As for the Democrats, he said they have typically raised taxes but haven't always paid theirs, a reference to admissions by several Obama administration nominees during confirmation hearings earlier this year.

Ummm, what party is he running for the nomination? Is he making fun of family values? I am at a loss for what his message is or more importantly who is he delivering it to. I assume he is trying to run as the outsider trying to break into the club, but when has that strategy ever proved effective?

To me the clear winner is Trey Grayson. He came off as a serious candidate who has a solid anti-Washington message. It is clear why he is the front runner. More importantly, he came off as the most Senatorial of all the candidates. Especially when put up against the angry white guy routine of Conway and the childish attacks of Mongiardo.

Posted by brians at 3:34 PM in Kentucky Politics

Responses (0)

Fancy Farm From Afar: Blue Edition

Since I didn't get the opportunity to attend Fancy Farm this year, I can only comment on how it was reported in the papers. But from what I have read in the Courier Journal and the Lexington Herald, it seems like the picnic had some fantastic fireworks. The biggest story from the speeches yesterday was the blue on blue violence between Democratic candidates in the U.S. Senate primary. Mongiardo started it off with theatrics by attacking Conway for being part of the "silver spoon crowd".

Mongiardo led off the speaking, attacking Conway for his decision to attend Duke University, the implication being that Conway had a privileged upbringing. Campaign staffers for Mongiardo, a University of Kentucky graduate and Hazard physician, passed out plastic silver spoons in a bid to drive home the idea that Mongiardo represents the working class-voters.

"He chooses to fight for the silver-spoon issues preferred by the champagne and caviar crowd" Mongiard said of Conway.

I know Mongiardo enjoys making crude attacks on Conway over his residency in Louisville and his attendance at Duke University, but he might have stumbled into a cohesive strategy that he could prove effective. What strategy? Good old class warfare. Amazingly, I think he could actually turn it into a cohesive and effective battle plan for taking on Conway in the primary.

Think about it. Mongiardo is going to be significantly outspent in the primary. He can turn Conway's strength into a liability by using it as further proof that Conway is part of some illusionary "elite". Mongiardo can easily turn Conway's liberal stances into additional proof of his elitism. Take Cap-n-Trade. I know Conway says he would support it only if it didn't negatively effect Kentucky (I don't know how Ca-n-Trade wouldn't hurt Kentuckians, but that is an issue for another day), but the fact that he supports such a tree hugger initiative further ingrains in people that he supports the yuppy class.

I imagine it could play very effectively in the rural parts of the state and the even the lower classes in urban areas. The question is will he get enough votes from these constituencies to offset the beating he will take in Louisville and Lexington? On top of that, I don't have confidence that Mongiardo is competent enough to pull of the strategy effectively.

Conway on the other hand appears to be adrift. All he did was play defense to Mongiardo.

But Conway, Mongiardo's opponent in May's Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate, shot back that Mongiardo, an ear, nose and throat surgeon, had "misdiagnosed" him.
"When it comes to me, you can't hear the truth, you can't smell the truth and you sure as hell can't speak the truth," Conway said.

I guess someone got under his skin to make such a rash comment. The only other I took from the article is how tough Conway supposedly is.

And when a crowd of Mongiardo suporters tried to shout hm down Conway quoted former U.S. Senator Wendell Ford saying "Go ahead and chew on my hide... it only grows back tougher" before adding "You're looking at one touch son of a bitch".

You know, if you have to say how tough you are, then you probably aren't all that tough. Besides Conway comes off looking like an ass with these two quotes. I can't imagine the "angry white guy" routine is going to play all that well across the Commonwealth.

After reading the stories on Fancy Farm it was clear that Conway was the huge loser on the day. Not only does he come off like a complete jerk, he has no message for the voters. It is still early in the election cycle, but he needs to regroup and try to put a consistent message together. Otherwise he is going to get defined by his opponent. A position that will be very difficult to overcome.