McConnell: The Great Kentuckian

In his Thursday Washington Post column, George Will called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "Kentucky's most important politician since Henry Clay."

He'll have his hands full in January when the Democrats take over the executive branch of the federal government. More from Will:

Speaking last week by telephone from Kentucky, McConnell said Republicans should feel "disappointment, not despair." In comprehensively adverse conditions -- "the worst since the Depression" -- their presidential candidate nevertheless won 46 percent of the vote. Although 23 percent of Barack Obama's voters were under 30, McConnell does not subscribe to "as the twig is bent" determinism. ("Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined" -- Alexander Pope.) He does not think the younger generation has acquired an indelible Democratic imprint.

Ninety percent of John McCain's vote was white, and the white percentage of the turnout has fallen from 90 percent in 1976 to 77 percent in 2004 and 74 percent in 2008. Still, McConnell believes that although Hispanics, the nation's largest minority, gave Obama two-thirds of their votes, they are entrepreneurial and culturally conservative, and therefore are not beyond the reach of Republicans.

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