Kentucky Fried

Not only is Mitch McConnell unlikely to be defeated in his bid for a sixth term as U.S .Senator form Kentucky, he's likely to be the Majority Leader in January 2015.

A recent poll shows McConnell pulling away from his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, leading over her by seven percentage points.  Ed Schultz's prediction that the Democrats' chances in the midterms would improve once people came to appreciate the Affordable Care Act has hardly come true - not even in Kentucky, where the Affordable Care Act is working better than expected.

The Democrats in Kentucky, who tend to be more conservative than the national party, might do well there in elections for state and local offices, but on the national level they're too associated with Washington to have a chance against Republicans in U.S. Senate races.  No Democrat has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky since 1992. 

Oh yeah, remember Jack Conway, the Kentucky state Attorney General?  Remember when he opposed Rand Paul for the open Senate seat in Kentucky in 2010?  And he blew it by trivializing Paul's religious beliefs?  And - yeah, I'm repeating myself - Chris Matthews said Conway had a brilliant future ahead of him?  We haven't heard about him, have we?  Funny he didn't oppose McConnell this year.  But then, Conway was a) a Democrat and b) a loser.  Democrats, of course, never get a second chance for an office after one loss.  Conway has likely gone into political oblivion.

Which is likely where Alison Lundergan Grimes - like the rest of the Democratic Party - is going.

Kentucky is the canary in the coal mine. Kentuckians are familiar with those.