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It was a bold declaration.
On Saturday night, amid a competitive Democratic primary for president, Beshear had the chance to make another strong political statement in front of his home crowd by endorsing in that race.
Instead, Beshear, who grew up in Dawson Springs, reiterated that he hasn't "quite made up my mind."
Nevertheless, he offered kind words about New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spoke an hour and a half after he did at the Hopkins County Democrats' dinner named for Ruby Laffoon, the previous county native to serve as governor.
"Senator Clinton not only was a great first lady, she's also been a great senator from the state of New York," Beshear said. "She's running a great campaign."
Conventional political wisdom would say that Saturday night was a prime opportunity for him to endorse Clinton. It was on his home turf, sharing a stage with her and in front of a pro-Clinton crowd in a region that most political observers say will vote heavily for her on May 20.
Clinton acknowledged Beshear and his wife, Jane, in her remarks to the 3,500 people in the Madisonville North Hopkins County High School but made no mention of whether she hopes or expects his support.
She met privately with Beshear elsewhere in the school before she spoke. That was a follow-up to a longer chat between the governor and Clinton's husband when the former president campaigned in Kentucky on Tuesday.
The Clintons are putting the full-court press on Beshear partly to lock up a high-profile Kentucky endorsement. But even more important to Clinton is that Beshear is one of the nearly 800 Democratic superdelegates who will be free to support any candidate they choose at the party's national convention in August -- regardless of the results of their state's primary.
Beshear has said for months that he plans on hearing out the candidates before making up his mind.
He's not alone.
Three other prominent Kentucky superdelegates -- Democratic Party Chairwoman Jennifer Moore, Vice Chairman Nathan Smith and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler -- also remain undecided. Three other Kentucky superdelegates back Clinton, while U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville is the lone state superdelegate to endorse Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Hopkins County's state representative, Eddie Ballard, D-Madisonville, said he hasn't picked yet, although he said, "I think she'll probably carry the county."
"I'm waiting on the governor. You can say that," he said with a chuckle.
Even Rep. Brent Yonts, a Greenville Democrat and strong Clinton supporter, said he doesn't begrudge Beshear for keeping his powder dry.
"I think he'll go with the will of the people. And if she does that well, I think he will go with her," Yonts said, predicting that Clinton will garner 75 percent of the votes among Western Kentucky Democrats. "In the role he's in as political party leader and as a superdelegate, he is wise to wait and not directly impact the (primary's) outcome one way or the other."
But political consultant Danny Briscoe of Louisville offered an alternative strategy -- one he recently presented to one of Beshear's top political aides.
Briscoe suggested that Beshear should back Obama regardless of how the Kentucky primary turns out because Obama mathematically looks to be the nominee with his lead in delegates.
"In Kentucky, clearly Clinton is going to win 2 to 1, but if the governor steps forward and says he's for Obama in a white, Southern state, that puts him in a position to be remembered by Barack Obama for a long time" if Obama wins the White House, Briscoe said.
Still, the politically safe route would be to stay neutral for as long as possible, said Yonts.
"People do best when they don't get themselves in boxes," Yonts said. "Sometimes you can't get out of it."
The VP and Billy G
Republican Brett Guthrie's congressional campaign has attracted a couple big names in addition to Vice President Dick Cheney for its fund-raiser Monday in Lexington.
The lunchtime soirŽe at the Chevy Chase home of Judson and Kelly Knight, who is a U.S. delegate to the United Nations, also is expected to draw Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Somerset and University of Kentucky men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie, said J. Scott Jennings, a consultant for Guthrie.
This would be Gillispie's first foray into Kentucky politics since taking the helm of the UK program a year ago. Gillispie has no history of political giving, according to a review of Federal Election Commission records and those of the ethics commission in Texas, where Gillispie coached from 2002 to 2007.
Guthrie, a GOP state senator from Bowling Green, is seeking the open 2nd Congressional District seat in west-central Kentucky. Retiring U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Cecilia, had set up a fund-raiser with Cheney before Lewis suddenly dropped his re-election bid in January. After Guthrie entered the race to replace Lewis, his campaign then secured the vice president for this event.
Ice cream U-turn
Bill Clinton's now-famous stop to serve ice cream at the Flemingsburg Dairy Queen on Tuesday almost didn't happen.
The U.S. Secret Service didn't want to let Clinton out in an unsecured, unsanctioned stop, said political consultant Dale Emmons, who told a crowd of several hundred at the restaurant that Clinton wouldn't be stopping after all.
But when Jerry Lundergan, a former state Democratic Party chairman and close Clinton ally, found out that the Secret Service had scrapped the detour, he phoned the former president in the car.
"Lundergan raised so much hell and got Clinton on the phone that the president told them to turn around in the middle of the street," said Emmons.
It was a good thing. Clinton supporter and superdelegate Terry McBrayer, who was also accompanying the former president, told the Herald-Leader that Clinton, a notorious fan of sweets, declared the impromptu ice-cream pit-stop his favorite of the day.
