The Kentucky Primary

I just survived my first election show. And I just survived producing a live election results show. And I just survived the Kentucky primary.

It's been a whirlwind ever since I moved here. I mean besides the obvious, new location, new home, new job, new friends deal...it's also been new politics, new candidates, new crazy ad campaigns. I had only vaguely heard of Rand Paul before I moved here and that's only because of Ron Paul. But when I moved here, I was inundated with Rand Paul, who just so happens to live in town.

And it seemed like after I moved here, Kentucky politics was all over the place. Senator Jim Bunning blocked an extension of unemployment benefits (thanks for the bad rep Bunning). Senator Mitch McConnell was just angry all the time (making his state look proud!). Then there was this primary.

This was no ordinary primary. Fox News was here, CNN ...ABC...the Wall Street Journal, they were all here covering this primary! It was a big freaking deal and I needed to make sure we looked good.

I was filling my 10 o'clock show with a live shot at Rand Paul's victory party, a concession speech from his opponent Trey Grayson, the latest numbers from the Republican and Democratic races, the results of the 32nd District State Senate race, and results of other local races. It was a results-galore show and my brain started to feel like mush as we began to close in on the show. About two hours before, I got a feeling I had never gotten before: I wasn't going to finish the show. I wasn't going to finish the show, I wouldn't have the results I needed, I wouldn't have anything for the anchors to read or for production to prepare, I was screwed.

And then...somehow, it came together. Everything we were supposed to run got done, all the results we wanted to show were shown, and it even looked good on TV! And honestly, that's all that really matters. We don't get a result, yes that's horrible, but if we make it look seamless on TV and what you watch on TV doesn't look out of the ordinary, that means we did a good job.

You know, I doubt the primary would have been as big of a deal if the Tea Party wasn't involved. And cue the Tea Party! What I first thought was a funnily-named political movement is suddenly turning the tide of American politics, knocking out incumbents because they have that activist grassroots movement working against those "Washington politicians" and crowning an underdog with the GOP nomination for Kentucky's U.S. Senate seat. If people didn't pay attention to the Tea Party before, they most certainly are... or they need to be.

I feel the mid-term elections are going to be game-changing. With support of the Tea Party, Republicans could easily turn the tide in Congress in November. And I feel that people are slowly starting to pull away from Obama. As much I love the charisma of that guy, I can't help but feel sometimes that he is pulling of the same stuff as other administrations...more troops to Afghanistan when the US said it was going to pull out... huge bailouts to mortgage giants and clearly money-losing automakers...

I know there are people critical of Obama. But I feel sometimes that people aren't as critical of him as they were near the end of Bush's term. By that point, Bush had pretty much lost all his credibility so I guess this isn't too hard of a feat...nevertheless, do we like Obama too much? More than we should just because he's a great speaker, he's personable, and he seems more normal to us?

Hm, that's an out of the ordinary political statement on my blog. I don't normally do this. Don't get used to it though, I'm probably going to post a food picture or something else in my next post :P

Alright, time to sleep.