The Wall Street Journal ran an article highlighting Mitch's increasing vulnerability:
One sign of how bad things are for Republicans this year is the suddenly tough re-election campaign of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, running in a state that is usually a GOP stronghold.
A few weeks ago, Sen. McConnell seemed a shoo-in for a fifth term, with polls giving him a double-digit lead over an unpopular challenger. But two weeks of worsening economic news -- and the unpopularity of the $700 billion rescue package he helped push through Congress -- are unsettling races where Republican incumbents once were thought to be safe.
...What's especially telling is that Sen. McConnell is attempting to run from the party he helps lead, even while bragging about his clout.
CityBeat also wrote up an article on the campaign:
Being in touch with what people need and want is a key message for Lunsford. Concerns about fuel costs — recently joined by concerns about the economy, rapidly shrinking retirement savings, the undue influence of corporate interests and the current economic meltdown — have turned voters into victims, he says.
“We have a country today that 25 years ago had usury laws,” Lunsford says. “The reason we had usury laws was to keep stuff like this from happening. Today you have an open sea that says, ‘Do as you wish.’ We have taken all of the regulation out of the financial industry, whether it’s pay-day lending, whether it’s credit cards, whether it’s banking.”
...“My children and my grandchildren are going to have to pay for my generation because we’ve been selfish. No one is more of a poster boy of that than Mitch McConnell. He and (President) Bush, for the last eight years, have created irreparable damage to our country from a world-view standpoint and an economic standpoint.”
The Courier-Journal published an editorial on Mitch's latest outrageous attack on Lunsford:
The new Mitch McConnell ad disparages Valor, but with no documentation, on screen or off, and provides no details about the case in question. If there is documentation, the McConnell campaign had a responsibility to share it with voters and not withhold it for use as a gotcha once the issue of verification was raised. All that's been offered so far is a statement from the widow -- unsigned. The ad's creators knew that Valor is barred by federal privacy laws from defending itself against a smear by discussing an individual case.
Unfortunately, this is only the latest example of McConnell TV spots that have been false and/or deceptive, including clearly untrue claims that Mr. Lunsford was responsible for the run-up in gasoline prices and that he doesn't live in Kentucky. Then came the repudiation of the first Valor Healthcare spot, which tried to suggest that 83-year-old Navy veteran Adolfo Piña was dissatisfied with the care the company provided him.
Unhappy about being misrepresented, Mr. Piña explained, "Valor clinic is doing very good for me here in Texas City. They're doing a good job by taking care of our needs. They're taking very good care of my needs, and I'm just one of thousands of veterans of World War II. The McConnell people interviewed me and took my words out of context. And I don't appreciate that. They did exactly what I told them not to do."
Lunsford's new ad addresses McConnell's false attacks:
Mitch is obviously feeling the heat. Please help Bruce Lunsford win in November!
