Charlie Pierce Asks Why Not Beshear in 2016?

Because if Mitch McConnell falls in November, it'll be Beshear's kynect success that brought him down.

If this hopeless position is why McConnell's career goes under at the polls this November, and if we have the happier outcome of a Senator Alison Lundergan Grimes, a big assist has to go to Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, who set out to make the Affordable Care Act work for as many citizens as he could, and who has become extremely popular as a result, and who, as a lovely byproduct, has middled Mitch McConnell into incoherence. He is one of the few politicians in America who's managed to succeed in defeating the curious dynamic by which voters say they hate "Obamacare," but love all of its component parts. In fact, even given his age, why Beshear isn't mentioned more frequently by the anybody-but-Hillary faction within the Democratic party is puzzling, although there has been some talk about his taking the second spot on the ticket. If he helps rid the Senate of Mitch McConnell while doing right by the citizens of his state, though, I'd say his work is pretty much done.

Excellent question, though Stevie looks progressive only against a red state backdrop. On a national stage, he's even more conservative and corporately-owned than Hillary herself.