As I and many others predicted, Kentucky re-elected easily Steve Beshear as governor. It was an over 20% victory in a 3 man race. Notwithstanding that Bill Bartleman, on WKYX, Paducah's Rush Limbaugh radio station, said that this wasn't a "mandate" for Beshear, I don't know what Bartleman's statement is based on - if this isn't a "mandate" then what is?

But it wasn't just the governor who won - it was the attorney general, the secretary of state, and the state treasurer. The only republican to win was the agriculture commissioner, and that was because the democratic candidate was a comedian who went around making less than complementary jokes about Kentucky rural folks. Not a good formula for winning an election for agriculture commissioner.

I have no idea whether or not Beshear will have a good second term. He seems too much beholden to the big corporations to me to make the changes that need to be made. But he is a sight better than David Williams, a sourpuss republican who had no agenda except criticism of Obama. And for those republicans that think that they can win simply by criticizing Obama, this should be a lesson. If it doesn't work in Kentucky, it's not going to work elsewhere.