Papaw Beshear Responds to POTUS

I was driving and therefore listened to, rather than saw, former KY Gov. Steve Beshear give the Democratic Response to President Trump's joint address to Congress.

Thankfully, Beshear did not use that hokey twang he has tortured us with every times he presented the Kentucky Derby trophy as governor.

It wasn't a terrible speech. But Beshear was a really odd choice -- a reflection of how weak the Democrats' bench is these days. Or as one person put it on Twitter, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decided to give a younger kid a chance, so they tapped 72-year old Beshear.

Those of us in Kentucky knew that Beshear's rosy description of Obamacare here was beyond alternative facts: it was an alternate reality.

All those people that Beshear put on Obamacare are on Medicaid -- not the "young invincibles" that Obamacare required to ostensibly pay for itself.

And the vaunted "Kynect" that Beshear boasted about  -- just a state version of the national exchange  and web site. To be sure, Beshear did a better job of it than the federal government, but only because the federal roll out was a disaster. Moreover, Beshear spent scarce money creating something he did not need to create, because Kentucky could have used the federal exchange. Indeed, that's what is happening now that Gov. Matt Bevin has abolished Kynect.

So it was a lot of smoke and mirrors.

I had to laugh that Beshear hosted a FaceBook live chat with his son, KY Attorney General Andy Beshear. Apparently this is to help groom Andy to take on Matt Bevin for governor. Good luck with that.