Kentucky Secretary of State and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee is "insulting the intelligence" of Bluegrass State voters when she insists she cannot disclose for whom she voted in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. That was the assessment of MSNBC contributor Howard Fineman, appearing on the October 14 edition of The Cycle in a panel discussion handicapping the 2014 Senate races.
For their part, the show's "Cyclists" seemed to agree, with co-host Toure saying Grimes's reticence is "getting really tired" and added, "the only thing worse than an unpopular vote is lacking the conviction to stand up for it."
"it's such an obvious, painful soundbite. She can't get around it," Fineman groused, upset because "it's a shame" that the controversy is an unforced error that gives McConnell the upper hand in a campaign where Grimes had been campaigning pretty well:
It seems like she's insulting the intelligence of the voters in Kentucky, and it's a shame because McConnell's on the air now in ads in Kentucky, using Chuck Todd, by the way, and it's just a killer because it allows McConnell to then question everything else about Alison Grimes's credibility. Which is unfortunate. As I say, she's run a very good campaign so far.
Co-host Ari Melber then weighed in by agreeing that "it is totally insane to say when you're running for office that you get to have the privacy of the ballot box." After all, "she's running on a bunch of positions, and which type of president she wants to work with is certainly one of them."
It bears repeating that the MSNBC crew is immensely disappointed in Grimes not simply for insulting the intelligence of Kentucky voters, but that she has needlessly shot herself in the foot in what they consider to be, or perhaps was, a winnable race.
After all, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee announced today that it was pulling its ad buys in Kentucky, most likely signaling that the internal polling data is showing Grimes is rapidly losing her chance to turn the seat over to Democratic hands.
With Grimes considered likely to lose a race she could have won, expect the liberals at MSNBC and elsewhere in the media to kick her while she's down.
