Fancy Farm Fracas

If it's the first Saturday in August, it's time for the St. Jerome Catholic Church picnic, aka Fancy Farm, Kentucky's premier "eat a crapload of BBQ and heckle your political opponent" event.  This year's headliner bout was no exception, as Alison Grimes took on Sen. Mitch McConnell, exchanging some brutal blows.

"Thirty-five is my age - that's also Senator McConnell's approval rating," Grimes quipped.

Polling from earlier this year indicated McConnell's approval rating was in the low 30s.

And Grimes gave McConnell grief for serving in Washington for so long, saying he'd forgotten about the people of Kentucky.

"After three decades in Washington, you've just given up. You don't care about us any more. Thanks to you, D.C. stands for 'Doesn't Care," Grimes said.

But McConnell had something to say about how important his experience is while highlighting Grimes' inexperience, drawing parallels between Grimes, who's two years in as Kentucky's secretary of state, and the relative inexperience of President Barack Obama before taking office.

"He was only two years into his first big job when he started campaigning for the next one. Sound familiar?" McConnell said.

And of course, Rand Paul crashed the party.

"There once was a woman from Kentucky, who thought in politics she'd be lucky. So she flew to LA for a Hollywood bash. She came home in a flash, with buckets of cash," Paul said.

While the race has clear national implications and is one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, Grimes said she wants the focus to be on Kentuckians.

"This race is between me, you and the people of Kentucky," Grimes said to McConnell, seated just a short distance away.

Polls show the race is nearly tied just three months away from the election.

The big prognostication sites, 538, Upshot, Cook Political Report, etc continue to give Grimes almost no chance of winning this race.  Mitch is too entrenched in the state, too politically savvy, too rich to lose down the stretch and he'll pull away and win by 8-10 points.  I think Mitch will get the fight of his political life.

We'll see.