Comment on Kentucky Pundits agree - Nobody saw Paul victory

Mary Potter


Clinton, KY - May 21, 2010 - The media elite of Kentucky journalism - Ferrell Wellman, Ronnie Ellis, Greg Stotlemeyer and Bill Bartleman all agreed on Comment on Kentucky this evening that no one saw a Paul victory a year ago. 

Really?  We respectfully disagree. We did. Or at least we saw a candidate who was stronger than any of the mainstream media would credit.

Okay- they may be right about nobody seeing it a year ago. Paul didn't announce until after the Fancy Farm Picnic in August, 2009. We at WKJPI have been following him since we declared his speech the best one of the day.  We watched him attack Jack Conway at St. John's. We watched him swarm over Trey Grayson in Paducah in February.

Paul may be tripping on his own tongue now. But in the last eight months, he built a campaign of lots of money and thousands of true believers. All under the noses of some very savvy pols and Kentucky media.  

Kentucky reporters should be ashamed for giving themselves a pass on the Paul victory.  The evidence was there from the beginning. The public was ready for a man that embodied their frustration and distress at what was happening outside of the Bluegrass State. 

Remember the anger at the health care open meetings over the summer? The widespread rejection of the Obama Administration in every Kentucky poll? The drumbeat of talk radio whipping up distrust in all things traditional?  Paul was the man of the hour. He was on Glenn Beck and every Fox show except the Simpsons. The MSM even ignored an endorsement by Sarah Palin, Mrs. America of the Right.

Paul's Internet money bombs brought in dollars from all over the country. His fundraising wasn't showy or classy. It was quietly effective. He openly derided Grayson's Washington's connections and lobbyist soirees. He criticized career politicians and even said that term limits meant that Daddy Ron Paul should leave Congress, then so be it. 

Eventually, professional curmudgeon Jim Bunning gave Paul his blessing- crassly, but predictably, turning his back on a man who looked to him as a mentor. (Way to go, Jim)

The media didn't see it coming because Kentucky media can't fathom that an outsider could break into big league politics.

Frankly, Kentucky media is looking pretty damn stupid to the national scene. They should man up and admit it. They missed a viable candidate hiding in plain sight. And they failed to ask simple questions during the campaign that would have pre-empted Rachel Maddow's scoop on Paul's waffling on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Why didn't Kentucky reporters ask Paul what it means to be a true libertarian?  Paul hasn't changed his story. He's anti - government. Period.  For better or worse. Richer or poorer. Rand has always advocated government minding its business - defense and treaties - what the Founders, oh blessed be their names, declared to be the business of the United States.  Paul wants nothing to do with interpretation or penumbras of the Constitution.

The national press now has its incisors in Paul and, unless he can wiggle away, leaving only a chunk of skin in their teeth, he may become, not just the fastest rising Kentucky political star, but the fastest falling.

Maybe the MSM will see that coming.