Steve Beshear was in the crowd, shaking hands and talking to reporters about one hour before the speeches began. And once on stage, he stuck around for all of the speeches by the down ticket candidates. Ernie Fletcher arrived about 15 minutes before the speeches and was ushered through the crowd, to the stage, by a couple of state troopers. He left after running mate Robbie Rudolph spoke, not sticking around for the speeches of the other G.O.P. candidates.

I only heard the entire speeches given by Fletcher, Beshear, Rudolph and Dan Mongiardo. But here are my observations from those speeches:

Best one liner: Beshear, who opened his speech with "Senator McConnell, it only took you a year but I'm glad you finally remembered Ernie's name."

Best Props: Fletcher, who had a "Casino Beshear" set up on a trailer in the parking lot. The plywood, fake casino featured "quick divorces" and "payday loans."

Most Biting Line: Rudolph, calling his counterpart "Fancy Dan" and saying he liked his women "well, let's just put it this way, I'm glad my daughter got married two weeks ago." Mongiardo is engaged to a 22-year-old woman.

Worst Speech: Mongiardo

Best Speech, overall: Beshear who deftly countered Fletcher's arguments against casinos and turned around Fletcher's attack on the 10 Commandments issue by saying he was just enforcing the law, a U.S. Supreme Court rulling, when he was attorney general and ordered school districts to take the Commandments down off their walls. Beshear adding "and as governor, I'll obey the law too. And wouldn't that be a great change if we had a governor who obeyed the law for a change."

Best line by Fletcher: "I don't know about you, but I don't subscribe to Steve Beshear's math and science program that only teaches our kids to count to 21"....a reference to a winning blackjack hand.

Most talked about signs: On the two lane road to Fancy Farm, there were three signs saying "Vote "straight" Republican. Vote Forgy. U.S. Senator '08." At the picnic there were fliers placed on dozens of windshields saying "Vote A Straight Republican. Vote Forgy U.S. Senator '08."
Mitch McConnell is married to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and has daughers from a previous marriage.
Forgy told me he had nothing to do with the signs but suspected one of his supporters from Leslie County did. He said he was glad to see Mitch McConnell actively supporting Ernie Fletcher, but wouldn't rule out, or in, the possibility of running against McConnell in a G.O.P. primary next year.

Other Fancy Farm stuff: Charlie Owen showed up but wouldn't say much about whether he might run for U.S. Senate. I overheard he and Greg Stumbo saying they needed to get to get together and talk.

Stumbo was walking around with someone else's bloodhound, saying he was searching for a "real U.S. Senator". That's a play on Mitch McConnell's famously successful use of hounddogs in his 1984 race against Dee Huddleston. McConnell's dogs were searching for Huddleston, who was then the incumbent.

After introducing House Speaker Jody Richards and having his stand up to be seen, Sen. David Williams cracked on Richards saying something like "Mr. Speaker, are you going to stick around until we're done?" That was a reference to Richards' decision to shut down the July special session on Day One without considering any of the 67 items Gov. Fletcher had placed on the agenda.

The crowd was relatively under control this year. There were some funny signs and good natured ribbing, chants and catcalls, but I didn't hear or see any of the abusive, over-the-top, disrespectful and asinine behavior I've seen in the past. After he shoved a radio reporter two years ago then claimed his wife was roughed up by democratic thugs, it's too bad Sen. Jim Bunning wasn't around to see this year's reasonably well-behaved bunch. Thanks to the picnic organizers.