What Does Kentucky Think of Rand Paul?

Rand Paul abruptly canceled his appearance on "Meet the Press." But "Meet the Press" still had plenty to say about him yesterday. Here is David Gregory's absolutely brutal segment on Paul, complete with footage of a civil rights-era lunch counter sit-in:



There's no doubt that Paul's reputation has taken a gigantic hit in Washington. But how much does that matter? The only thing pertinent to his future political prospects is how all this is going over in Kentucky. For the sake of comparison, I checked out the Louisville local network news casts. It's quite a contrast--the tenor is not nearly as critical (although it's interesting to see that David Gregory apparently gave an interview to the local NBC affiliate, WAVE, further criticizing Paul). Also interesting is that the WAVE newscaster blames the bailouts on Obama:

If this is the level of scrutiny that Paul is going to face in Kentucky--and the level of factual accuracy (remember most of the bailouts occurred under Bush, not Obama)--then I think he's still in pretty good shape to prevail, don't you?