Conway greets President Obama at Northern Kentucky airport

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway greeted and talked to President Barack Obama Monday in Northern Kentucky before Obama made a campaign stop in Cincinnati.

Conway was at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron at the request of Gov. Steve Beshear to meet Obama when Air Force One landed, said Conway spokeswoman Allison Gardner Martin.

Martin said Beshear could not welcome Obama to Kentucky because the governor is in India on an economic development trip and Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson, who is Jewish, could not attend because it is Rosh Hashanah.

Conway and Obama began their conversation talking about the Cincinnati Reds and Obama’s favorite baseball team, the Chicago White Sox, Martin said.

“The general admitted that the Reds’ success caused him some consternation as he is a St. Louis Cardinals fan because of his family’s roots in Western Kentucky,” she said.

Conway sent regards from Beshear and thanked the president for his help in Conway’s unsuccessful 2010 race against Republican Rand Paul for the U.S. Senate, Martin said.

“President Obama told General Conway that it ‘Doesn’t hurt to lose one. It’s your ability to bounce back that people will notice,’” Martin said. “He congratulated General Conway for ‘bouncing back’ and being re-elected as Kentucky’s attorney general.”

Conway also thanked Obama “for the cooperation and openness that state attorneys general have experienced working with the Department of Justice under the leadership of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.”

Filed Under: Barack Obama • Jack Conway