I occasionally post news here regarding my home state of Kentucky.
In one of the more interesting political dynamics you’ll see, Kentucky has a Democratic governor, Steve Beshear. He will turn 70 next year and was re-elected in 2011 with 56 percent of the vote.
In 2012, Obama got just 38 percent of the vote in Kentucky.
Yesterday Thursday, Beshear published an op-ed in the New York Times: My State Needs Obamacare. Now.
From Beshear:
SUNDAY morning news programs identify Kentucky as the red state with two high-profile Republican senators who claim their rhetoric represents an electorate that gave President Obama only about a third of its presidential vote in 2012.
So why then is Kentucky — more quickly than almost any other state — moving to implement the Affordable Care Act?
Because there’s a huge disconnect between the rank partisanship of national politics and the outlook of governors whose job it is to help beleaguered families, strengthen work forces, attract companies and create a balanced budget.
It’s no coincidence that numerous governors — not just Democrats like me but also Republicans like Jan Brewer of Arizona, John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan — see the Affordable Care Act not as a referendum on President Obama but as a tool for historic change.
The entire piece is well worth a read.