Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, got behind the Affordable Care Act, expanded Medicaid and set up a state health insurance exchange known as Kynect, which now benefits an estimated 500,000 Kentuckians. It’s working so well that even Mr. McConnell, who says he would “pull out” the health care law “root and branch,” pretends that Kynect could survive if the law were repealed.  Such deception deserves an aggressive response. Unfortunately, Ms. Grimes does not provide one. Instead of explaining that Kynect depends on federal subsidies, she’s content to call Mr. McConnell’s plan a “fantasy” and then pledge to fix the health care law. Her favorite improvement — allowing people to keep their old insurance plans even if those plans do not comply with the federal law’s standards — is a fantasy, too. Ms. Grimes is so loath to wade into the health care debate that she does not mention the law on her website.  Often, Ms. Grimes tells voters what she thinks they want to hear, especially if the truth might put her on the side of President Obama. At Monday’s debate, Mr. McConnell claimed that the state’s high poverty and unemployment rates were the result of Mr. Obama’s environmental regulatory agenda, and he suggested that the decline in mining jobs was wholly attributable to the “war on coal.”  Ms. Grimes retorted that Mr. McConnell shared responsibility for the state’s economic woes, but she agreed that environmental regulations were overly burdensome. She said not a word about broader forces that are making coal mining less viable, like tapped out coal seams and the low price of natural gas.  As opposed to an “Obama Democrat,” Ms. Grimes calls herself a “Clinton Democrat.” But what, exactly, distinguishes an “Obama Democrat” from a “Clinton Democrat”? It’s not clear. At the debate, Ms. Grimes said a Clinton Democrat was dedicated to growing the middle-class, as if Mr. Obama, or any other politician, wouldn’t say the same. The economic issues that Ms. Grimes is willing to push — items that poll well like raising the minimum wage — are not exclusive to Clintonian liberals.  Kentucky voters are left to choose between a self-described Clinton Democrat who won’t defend Mr. Obama or his policies, and an establishment Republican who won’t hesitate to attack him. It’s not surprising that Ms. Grimes trails in most polls.  A version of this editorial appears in print on October 16, 2014, on Page A30 of the New York edition with the headline: In Kentucky’s Senate Race, a Democrat Runs Away From Obama. Today's Paper|Subscribe
An unpopular Mitch McConnell seems preferable to an Alison Lundergan Grimes if she’s in the party of President Obama.