Trump’s vote-GOP push falls far short

Counting down ...

“Can you believe it? Less than a year,” Donald Trump told a rally in Kentucky, looking forward to election 2020.

Not nearly as much as we are, Don.

Tuesday’s voting was only a weenie prologue, although naturally we intend to read as much into the results as is humanly possible. Virginia went a serious shade of blue, the Pennsylvania suburbs started looking distinctly Never Trump, and the Republican governor of Kentucky seems to be out of a job.

That last was certainly embarrassing for Trump, who held a big rally in Lexington on the day before the election, during which he freely admitted that if Gov. Matt Bevin lost, the evil media would say “Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.”

Well, maybe not the greatest. There was the fall of Troy. The Battle of Waterloo. The 1940 NFL championship game when the Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins 73-0. Still, pretty embarrassing.

The margin of victory for Democrat Andy Beshear is small, and Bevin is clearly going to keep battling until the vote counters faint. So it’s very likely that by the time Kentucky works this out, the rest of the country will have forgotten all about it.

Except for the part where Trump encouraged his fans to think the gubernatorial election was all a referendum on him. If you run into any problems this week that send you into a funk, just remind yourself that Donald Trump is feeling worse. I guarantee it will perk you up.

Of course, he’s rebranding. “Won 5 out of 6 elections in Kentucky, including 5 great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night,” he tweeted. In other words: Hey, I lost the governor, but I saved the agriculture commissioner.

It was Bevin’s awfulness that was supposed to convince the world that Republicans would vote for anybody as long as he was tied to Trump. And you know that if he had won, we’d be hearing nothing all day from the White House but how Kentuckians really went to the polls to defeat impeachment.

There actually were some issues in Tuesday’s elections. Abortion rights advocates in Kentucky argued that part of the revolt against Bevin was due to the passage of a state law banning abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy. In Virginia, where Democrats swept control of state government, one important theme was gun control. (In May, 12 people died in a mass shooting in Virginia Beach, and Republican legislators blocked attempts to take up gun legislation.)

Remember when Trump responded to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, by calling for new laws to allow authorities to take guns away from people who were clearly a danger to themselves and others? Those days are gone and — at least in the White House — totally forgotten.

“By the way, you’re going to lose your Second Amendment if you vote with Democrats,” the president told that Lexington rally. “You think I’m kidding? ... You will lose your Second Amendment as soon — I’m telling you. As sure as you’re standing here. Is anybody sitting? Nobody ever sits. You can sit if you want. No, just stand. You know what they say in the fake news? Look, you’ve been standing. Nobody sat? I don’t know, isn’t that exciting?”

OK, the last part was sort of just to give you a taste of how his mind works. You’ll have plenty more chances to observe. Remember, we’ve still got a year to go.