Posted on 02/07/2016 7:30:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- At the start, of course, he was a joke -- a rich man playing politics, dismissed by friend and foe. But he stayed in it. His numbers climbed. And at a certain point, he wasn't funny anymore.
He is Matt Bevin, the governor of Kentucky, and his election last fall may say more about the current state of Republican politics than anything happening in New Hampshire this week.
Bevin has been called "The Donald Trump of Kentucky." But he's more of an amalgam really: a mix of Trump, Ted Cruz and something all his own. His success helps explain why Cruz, a man hated by much of his own party, and Trump, a reality TV star, have emerged as the two Republican leaders in the national race.
Bevin's surprise win last November "rattled me," said Sam Youngman, who covered the governor as a columnist and reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "It made me believe that Trump or Cruz could win. And before then, I didn't believe that."
Like Trump, Bevin is a wealthy political outsider -- he came from money, but made millions on his own as an investor and entrepreneur. And like Trump, he earned as many headlines for his missteps and misstatements when he first entered politics as for his policies. (With the exception of John Edwards, Youngman said, "Matt Bevin might be the most dishonest politician I've ever covered.")
But on politics and policy, Bevin is much more like Cruz, said Stephen Voss, a professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. He won, like Cruz aims to, by wedding Tea Party voters with evangelicals, by attacking his own party as much the Democrats and tapping into a Christian base that doesn't always show up in the polls...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
I live in KY and this is just a “Let’s Hate Bevin” piece.
They did get one thing right: Bevin is more like Cruz then Trump.
I didn’t take it as a hate piece. Of course, after reading thread sources here about DT and Cruz, I could be losing my objectivity.
I’m sorry he didn’t beat McConnell. I believe he may have been the one I was rooting for but I’m not good with names AT ALL. ...searching Free Republic for Bevin in Titles
SHOCKed I tell you!
Trump Gave $50k to McConnell to Defeat Tea Partier Bevin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3384901/posts
Trump’s personality is a good thing?
Belittling and disrespecting people is what we’ve come to as a good personality?
I voted for Bevin against McConnell in the primary.
Many who didn’t are smacking themselves on the back of their heads.
I read a good article about that issue. While searching for it in my history (haven’t found it yet) I am enjoying this one. I know, I know, National Review is bad, but this is funny.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422116/donald-trump-and-american-id-kevin-d-williamson
The progressives have belittled and disrespected conservatives for years, and conservatives have either rolled over and apologized, or they have quite and left the arena. Donald Trump is the first person on our side who has done neither. If fact he has given back better than he has gotten. FOX News may be secretly seething and wanting to ruin his candidacy, but he has bloodied their collective noses so much that all they can do is secretly seethe.
When I think of all the conservative men and women who have been run out of town by the MSM and the GOPee, it really makes me glad that we finally have someone who can beat them at their own game.
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