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Obama Invoked Early & Often At Fancy Farm

By Associated Press

Graves County, KY – At Kentucky's traditional Saturday kickoff to the election season, Republicans sought to link Gov. Steve Beshear with President Barack Obama, who remains unpopular in the state, while Beshear steered clear of attacks on his GOP rivals and harped on his recent trip to visit American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell tried to make Obama a central figure in the governor's race, where the Republican candidate David Williams is trailing badly in the polls.

"Beshear and President Obama are singing the same tune; they both claim they've improved the economy," McConnell told a raucous crowd at a western Kentucky church picnic on Saturday. "Is there anybody out there who is better off since Beshear and Obama took over?"

Polls show Obama remains an unpopular political figure in Kentucky, nearly three years after losing the state to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary and Sen. John McCain in the general election. The GOP hopes to capitalize on Obama's negatives in their push to unseat Beshear.

"We need a governor who will stand up to Barack Obama, not endorse him," McConnell told a bipartisan crowd, triggering deafening cheers and jeers from throngs of political activists who attended the outdoor event that for generations has served as the traditional kickoff of Kentucky's fall campaign season.

Just back from a whirlwind trip to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit Kentucky troops, Beshear skipped the partisan political rhetoric that's come to be expected here and devoted his entire speech to touting the service of thousands of Kentucky troops serving in war zones.

"My heart and mind are not with partisan politics," Beshear said. "My heart and mind are thousands of miles away in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The picnic was an opportunity for Williams and independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith to draw contrasts between themselves and Beshear, a popular incumbent who is leading the race by more than 20 percentage points.

Williams congratulated Beshear on the trip, saying "You did the right thing." But he suggested that Beshear talked about his trip in his stump speech because he had no achievements to tout after more than three years in office.

"If I were Steve Beshear, I wouldn't want to talk about my record either," he said.

Galbraith said he was offended by Beshear's speech, accusing Beshear of trying "to hide behind the bodies of our men and women of the military."

More than 10,000 people attended the get-together on the grounds at St. Jerome Parish where the weather forecast called for an afternoon temperature in the mid-90s and a heat index of 105 degrees.

In recent weeks, Beshear has been boasting about his record, saying he has balanced the state budget nine times in an ailing economy without raising broad-based taxes. He also has been reminding Kentuckians that he has whittled more than a $1 billion from the state budget without substantial cuts to education, social services and public safety.

Williams, the state Senate president, has been critical of Beshear's record, saying he hasn't done enough to preserve and create jobs in the economic turmoil. Most of Williams' television advertising has focused on that issue.

Galbraith, one of the state's best-known candidates, is making his fifth run for governor. He officially entered the race last month. Early polls show him the favorite of nearly 10 percent of likely voters, positioning him as a potential spoiler if the race between Beshear and Williams tightens leading up to the Nov. 8 election.

Galbraith is marketing himself as an independent voice who could free Kentucky from what he calls a partisan quagmire that is holding the state back. As an independent, he said he could work effectively in Kentucky's politically divided government, where Democrats control the House and the GOP controls the Senate.