New York magazine and New York Times publish long stories about the race and McConnell

Two major examinations of the race were published online today. They are worth your time, but we only have time and space for a couple of teasers:

• Jonathan Martin, the national political correspondent for The New York Times, has a long story about Sen. Mitch McConnell in the newspaper's magazine, which will be in the print edition Sunday. His interview with Grimes doesn't appear until the last two paragraphs:

“I think that he is continuing to show just how out of touch he is with the state — the days of being able to bully your way and to buy your way back to Washington, D.C., are over,” she said, sticking to her talking points, as she did on most every question I posed. When I asked Grimes if she thought McConnell’s insider-outsider tactic was working — despite the fact that he had been in the Senate for 30 years and she was a genuine newcomer — she replied, “That is a campaign tactic that he is trying to use, to claim somehow that he’s the victim.” In the end, however, it seemed as though McConnell had found a way to make the race about Obama rather than himself. Somehow, he had yet again become the outsider. Maybe the guy still had it.

The pivot point in the long story by Chris Smith of New York magazine is an interview with Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:

Is this race about Mitch McConnell and national ideology and national partisanship, or is it about Kentucky?” Cecil says. “In the polling, voters side with Democrats on pocketbook issues. We have to make sure they go into the voting booth with that being the first thing on their minds. If they do, I think Alison will win. McConnell only wants to talk about Barack Obama. This is going to be a two-point race in either direction. And it’s going to be close all the way to the end.”