Political figures leaving the well worn routine of policy stump speeches and venturing into the realm of verse doesn’t always work out all that well for them. (Rapper MC Rove, anyone?) But at this year’s edition of the Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky, Rand Paul decided to try his hand at rhyming poetry, going on the attack against Alison Lundergan Grimes and in support of Mitch McConnell.

“There once was a woman from Kentucky,
who thought in politics she’d be lucky,
So she flew to L.A. for a Hollywood bash.
She came home in a flash with buckets of cash.
To liberals, she whispers: coal makes you sick.
In Kentucky, she claims coal makes us tick.
To the liberals, she sells her soul – the same ones who hate Kentucky coal.
One thing we know is true, one thing we know is guaranteed,
she’d cast her first vote for Harry Reid.
Grimes’ real pledge is to Obama; her first vote is to Reid;
as for Kentucky, if that happens, it’s too bad indeed.”

Not too shabby.

It remains to be seen if Paul’s support will rally any additional voters to Mitch’s cause. The Senate Minority Leader could apparently use all the help he can get, since the last round of numbers from the Bluegrass Poll shows McConnell with only a 2% lead over Grimes. Another poll from the same time period also shows that Kentucky voters are fed up with waiting for the candidates to face off in a debate.

Two-thirds of Kentucky voters say U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes have an obligation to the people of Kentucky to debate each other, according to the latest Bluegrass Poll.

The poll found that 66 percent of voters believe McConnell, a Republican, and Grimes, a Democrat, should debate, and large majorities of every demographic group polled said the two should face off.

At least 13 people and organizations have offered to host the debates, and while both McConnell and Grimes have accepted at least one offer, they can’t agree on which debate to attend together.

Generally when you see a race without debates it’s a case of a clear leader wanting to dodge the event to hang on to their edge and not give the underdog a chance to turn the momentum. That doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here, though. Given that both candidates are claiming to be ready to go, but disagreeing on the forum, it’s more likely that each wants to find a setting and moderator that won’t be quite so hostile to them. That could be a tricky feat to pull off, but hopefully some neutral ground will be located and the voters will get a chance to see the candidates put through their paces.

EDIT: (Jazz) It turns out that the poet was actually Rand Paul, not Paul Rand, the famous encyclopedia salesman.