Election 2008 post-mortem

Some thoughts, in no random order, about yesterday's election.

1.) There isn't enough space here to detail all the ways the Jefferson County Republicans screwed up the 3rd District congressional race. If the GOP wanted to oust John Yarmuth after one term, that effort should have began the day after the 2006 election. Instead, the Republicans ended up with a tainted candidate who wasted valuable time and money in her unsuccessful primary challenge against her party's incumbent governor last year, which alienated a number of Republicans. If Anne Northup wanted to run for her old seat this year, she should have put all her efforts into it from the start, instead of running for governor last year. Now Yarmuth is back for a second term and will become even more entrenched in the seat. Republican in Louisville need to start NOW on a strategy to oust him. Yarmuth can be beaten in 2010, especially since we predict a Republican backlash to the Obama presidency, but if he gets a third term, the seat will likely be his as long as he wants it. That's not a good thing for Louisville or Kentucky.

2.) Will Mitch McConnell be more humble now that he eked out his re-election victory over Bruce Lunsford? McConnell's race was closer than it should have been in large part because of his abandonment of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and the subsequent alienation of Fletcher's loyalists. Jim Bunning, who actually endorsed one of Fletcher's opponents in the 2007 primary, will have the same problem if he decides to run for re-election, and so far he gives all indications that he will.

3.) Hopefully Kentucky will have seen the last of that Purchase area nutcase, Heather Ryan. She needs to crawl back into whatever hole she came out of and just shut up.

4.) Is Bruce Lunsford's political career over? Is Anne Northup's?

5.) The strength of John McCain's victory over B. Hussein Obama in Kentucky proves that this state still values patriotism, service and experience, and isn't susceptible to a smooth-talking liberal snake oil salesman. But we shouldn't forget about a Kentuckian's role in putting Obama in the position to run for president in the first place. (We'll reprise that in a separate post). Kentuckians resisted the fad to vote for Obama and instead voted with their minds instead of with their emotions.

6.) Kathy Stein is going to be in for a rude awakening when she gets to the state Senate. It'll be joyous to watch David Williams put her in her place.

7.) Have we finally, and mercifully, put an end to the "Mitch is Gay" campaign tactic of the left? The Democrats finally went public with what had been a whisper campaign since 1984, and the tactic didn't work.

8.) On a national scale, have the Republicans found their new champion in Sarah Palin? The Alaska governor is a reformer, she's charismatic, and she appeals to the party base because she's one of us. The conservative elite intelligentsia doesn't quite know what to do with her, but the rank and file love her. We'll eagerly support a Palin candidacy in 2012 and we would be absolutely giddy over a Sarah Palin/Bobby Jindal ticket in four years. We think that team could make Obama a one-termer.

What are your random thoughts on the election?