Thursday, December 10, 2009

Correction Connection: Wall Street Journal does Kentucky politics, embarrasses self in the process

Some folks in cyberspace think I'm being too provincial when I criticize the East Coast media giants for not understanding the politics of the great Midwest.

Clearly, however, I'm more in step with the facts than the major media is.

Today, the Wall Street Journal's laughable editorial department printed a piece gloating about how Kentuckians rejected health care reform by electing a Republican in a special state senate election on Tuesday.

I'd hate to rain on the Wall Street Urinal's parade, but I think it's pretty safe to call their bluff. That seat had already been held by a Republican - the far-right Dan Kelly, who vacated the seat when he was appointed to a judgeship.

The Wall Streeters boast that this GOP win was stunning because that district usually votes 2-to-1 Democratic. Um, no. McCain carried every county in the district - mostly by landslide margins. I haven't computed the totals, but it appears as if the GOP won this week's election by a far narrower margin than McCain carried that district. In fact, the Democrat actually won a county this time.

The Street Gang also brags that the Democrats lost this election despite spending twice as much money as the Republicans. As Speak & Spell would say: Wrong. Try again. The GOP outspent the Democrats.

Did anyone seriously think the Democrats would win in a district that had elected someone as right-wing as Dan Kelly?

And how is this a referendum on national health care? It isn't. The election was for the state legislature, not Congress. With Kentucky having such a wussified legislature, nobody expects it to even consider its own version of real health reform.

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