Steve Beshear Needs To Come Out And Admit He Dissed POTUS Barack Obama For Political Expediency, Period.

Behind Gov. Beshear's bypassing of Obama in Kentucky
Written by Joseph Gerth

President Obama honors troops in visit to Fort Campbell
Gov. Steve Beshear didn't adjust Kentucky Oaks 2011 schedule to greet President Barack Obama

The problem with an unpopular president coming to your state when you're a governor running for re-election is that you are bound to tick off somebody.

Gov. Steve Beshear did that on Friday when President Barack Obama came to Fort Campbell to honor the men who killed Osama bin Laden, and other troops, and Beshear chose not to attend the event.

Instead, Beshear said he had previously planned events surrounding the Kentucky Oaks in Louisville that he just couldn't miss.

There was the celebration of breast cancer survivors, as well as the courting of potential investors that were brought to the state for the Kentucky Derby by his economic development folks.

Beshear said Saturday that nowhere in the calculation was the popularity — or lack of it — of Obama in Kentucky.

Obama is, of course, an anti-coal president and this is a coal state. He's also a black president in a state that has never elected an African American to any statewide office.

And Obama got creamed here in both the 2008 Democratic primary and general election.

None of that mattered, Beshear said. Nope. He got wind of the event just 36 hours before it took place, and he just couldn't arrange his schedule.

Few people are believing that.

Truth be told, Beshear is a bit handicapped because he doesn't have a lieutenant governor he trusts, so he couldn't hand off what he considered important things like business recruitment to his No. 2, Daniel Mongiardo.

But Beshear's wife, Jane, could have handled obligations like the breast cancer survivors event and just about anything else he had.

Some African-American leaders were critical of Beshear for not attending, as was state Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, who is white and one of the most liberal members of the legislature.

Many believe Beshear didn't want to give Republicans more ammunition to use against him.

They already nationalized state races over the past two years by linking state legislative candidates to Obama, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Washington Democrats.

And one couldn't blame Beshear for being wary of that.

But as political consultant Danny Briscoe noted, the Republicans are going to do that regardless of whether Beshear shows up somewhere with Obama.

In a 1994 special election for a U.S. House seat, when they didn't have a picture of Democrat Joe Prather with an unpopular Bill Clinton, they simply used computer technology to make a photo of Prather morph into one of Clinton.

They can do the same with Beshear and Obama.

On Saturday, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said he would have advised Beshear to go to Fort Campbell. Politically speaking, he doesn't believe it would have harmed him.

“I would have found a way to do it,” said Stumbo, saying Beshear could have flown into Western Kentucky, stayed a short time, and then flown back to Louisville.

“I would have recommended he go,” Stumbo said. “That wasn't a political event. It was an event to honor the brave soldiers.”

The snub is sure to anger the folks who used to make up Beshear's base, blacks and liberals in Louisville and Lexington. Some already are ticked off at the governor for what they consider pandering to the religious right on the issue of Ark Encounter, the Noah's Ark theme park planned in Northern Kentucky.

Stumbo said, however, he doesn't think any of it will hurt Beshear in the fall.

Beshear agrees, saying he expects the GOP to try to tie him to Obama.

“Certainly last year, that's what they tried to do in Kentucky,” he said. “It's not going to work this year.

Joseph Gerth's column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or at jgerth@courier-journal.com. His mailing address is 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431