At the Fancy Farm picnic, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Grimes lit up Mitch McConnell, and ripped the heart of out his campaign with a blistering speech that made Sen. McConnell’s remarks look stale and out of date.
Video of the speeches:
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Grimes began by calling the Fancy Farms Picnic Mitch McConnell’s retirement party. She immediately took a shot a McConnell for calling her an empty dress. She brought up McConnell’s Duke ad gaffe. She accused McConnell of forgetting about Kentucky. She said, “Thirty-five is my age, but it is also Mitch McConnell’s approval rating.” She said, “If Mitch McConnell were a TV show he would be Mad Men.” She said that thanks to McConnell, D.C. stands for doesn’t care. Grimes slammed McConnell for opposing the minimum wage. She adopted the doesn’t care call and refrain with the crowd.
Grimes slammed McConnell and said that McConnell doesn’t care about women, students, jobs, coal miners. She pledged that bringing jobs to the Commonwealth would be her number one priority. She said, “One of us represents the establishment. One of us represents Kentucky.” Grimes hammered home the issue of jobs. Her point was, “Gridlock has consequences.”
She called out McConnell directly for not wanting to appear with her or debate her. She said, “Senator, you can run from your failed record, and I intend to hold you accountable.”
Sen. McConnell followed Grimes and said, “This is the place where Republicans tell it like it is.” McConnell immediately began by bashing President Obama for not going down to visit the border. McConnell kept running against the Obama. His whole campaign can be summed up with him saying, “By any standard, Barack Obama has been a disaster for the country.” McConnell went on to compare Grimes to Obama, and claimed that Grimes is inexperienced like Obama and like Obama when she gets in trouble calls Bill Clinton.
McConnell said, “Kentucky is under attack from Barack Obama’s administration, and we need to fight back.” McConnell droned on with his standard Obama and liberal media bashing. McConnell brought up the bitter conservatives clinging to their guns and religion stuff.
Like Mitch McConnell, this speech was old and tired. There was little difference between McConnell’s 2013 Fancy Farm speech and his 2014 speech. Alison Grimes tore into McConnell because she knew that this might be her last chance to share the stage with him.
McConnell is dodging Grimes. He has been refusing to appear with her, and debate her. Alison Grimes has the energy and hunger that is clearly missing in Old Man Mitch. McConnell remembers how it looked when John McCain shared the stage with then candidate Obama in 2008. McConnell looks, sounds, and acts stale. A debate with Grimes would be a disaster for him.
After Alison Grimes finished with Mitch McConnell today, all that was left were the tattered Republican talking points from decades past. Mitch McConnell is on the ropes, and his dubious performance today makes one wonder if any amount of ad spending will be able to save him.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
