FLORENCE, Ky. (AP) - After years of being battered as a political punching bag in Kentucky, President Barack Obama received some favorable reviews Monday evening from several Democrats running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Rand Paul.
Speaking to a Democratic audience attending a forum in northern Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray said the two-term president “deserves more credit than he gets for what he’s achieved.” Gray - the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination in the state’s May 17 primary - said Obama has presided over a “dysfunctional environment” in Washington.
During a follow-up interview, Gray said he would give Obama a C or C-plus, adding: “I’m not in to grade inflation.”
Gray said he disagrees with Obama’s push for stricter federal pollution regulations for coal-burning power plants, calling them a contributing factor for the downturn in Kentucky’s coal sector. He also said Obama’s health care law needs to be improved but the president deserves credit for the death of terror leader Osama bin Laden and rebounds in the stock market and domestic auto industry.
For several elections, Kentucky Democrats have generally distanced themselves from Obama - who was trounced each time he was on the state’s ballot. Two years ago, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes refused to say whether she voted for Obama’s re-election. She was soundly defeated by Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who capitalized on Obama’s unpopularity with Kentucky voters.
Paul, who is seeking a second Senate term, has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s policies.
Four Senate candidates participated in the Democratic forum - Gray, former Frankfort City Commission member Sellus Wilder, former Army Green Beret Ron Leach of Brandenburg and Tom Recktenwald, a retired technology teacher from Louisville.
Recktenwald was even more complimentary of Obama’s presidency, saying he was proud to have voted for the president twice and would vote for first lady Michelle Obama if given the chance. He drew applause from the partisan crowd.
Leach said Obama inherited a mess from Republican President George W. Bush. Leach said the Democratic president deserves a B-minus, saying he had some concerns about Obama’s foreign policy. He said Obama would have done better without entrenched opposition from Republicans.
“Once we get past the filters of ideology, history will judge him as being a very good president,” he said.
Wilder described Obama as an “inherently good person” whose actions were done “with the best of intentions.”
The four rivals for the Senate nomination avoided criticizing one another during the policy discussion at Gateway Community and Technical College in northern Kentucky, a traditional Republican stronghold.
Gray repeatedly portrayed Paul as an obstructionist who was focused more on winning the presidency than on his senatorial duties.
“A U.S. Senate seat is a terrible thing to waste,” Gray said.
Paul campaign spokeswoman Kelsey Cooper said the Republican senator has concentrated on cutting government spending, opposing Obama’s environmental policies and defending the state from “outrageous government regulations and overreach.”
Gray also criticized Paul’s efforts to curtail the federal government’s surveillance powers, bluntly saying that the incumbent’s approach would make it easier for terrorists to plan and execute attacks.
Gray said he supports a higher minimum wage and spoke out against any efforts to privatize Social Security.
Recktenwald denounced the role of “big money” in politics. Leach said that since Kentucky Democrats last won a U.S. Senate race in 1992, the middle class has shrunk, wages have been flat or fallen and society has become more divided. Wilder said he supports an overhauled immigration system offering a path to citizenship, saying it would help shore up entitlement programs by creating millions more taxpayers.
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