Proud of Harold Ford, Jr.

[southerncrone]

Ford ran a good race. No doubt he will be going places in the future. I believe he had the following working against him on Tuesday:

1. He is not married In TN, there is a faction of backward rednecks that think if a man is over
30 & not married then he has something bad wrong w/him or is gay.

2. Brodcast of possibly the first black Senator since Reconstruction
When national media started discussing this, his numbers took a dive.

3. African-American TN still hasn't matured much since Reconstruction. Lack of progressive-
thinkers!

4. Lying Repuke ads This has been discussed ad nauseum

He was very gracious in his concession speech. If Corker was half the man Ford is, I would feel better about the outcome.

[Nictuku]

1. Eloquent Speech

My mom, who lives in Memphis says his concession speech was graceful and eloquent.
Anyone have a link for it?

[Erika]

2. I read threads on Lucianne and Freerepublic

where they said no black man would be elected from Tennessee if the rural districts had anything to do with it.

They voted no because of his skin color and Corker playboy ads with a blonde pitched in to feed the racism. Typical GOP white republicans.

[MADem]

3. I agree with much of what you said, and especially number One

I dunno if you caught the Daily Show tonight, but they had a mock Ford ad (featuring a scene from that 'epic' film Mandingo that summed up the concern about an unmarried Harold!

For some reason, and age is likely the reason, an unmarried House member is OK, but an unmarried SENATOR....ehhhhhh..... Even Jack Kennedy married an attractive photographer named Jackie when he was gettin' ready to head for the Senate...no fool, he.

Ford should spend the next couple of years IN the state, going from one end to the other on any and every excuse he can muster. He needs to get out there and see and be seen and make a few more connections. And he needs to find himself a bride, if he's in a marrying frame of mind. He doesn't HAVE to, but it would help. He could get elected on another go round in the future--frankly, I was surprised he did as well as he did, given the uphill battle and the ad nauseum repitition of that goddamned ad on the national cable outlets even after it had been pulled. He clearly had a good GOTV effort going on.

Ford should feel good that Corker goes into the history books as the clown who spent the most money EVER on ads, attack and otherwise. Corker's ad budget was almost twice Harold's, and it didn't buy that much of a margin...

[southerncrone]

4. Missed Daily Show tonite

usually watch it, but didn't notice the time. I really feel that was his main problem in TN. That's why you saw Corker running the ads w/his kids & wife saying "I just wanted you to meet my
blah, blah, blah" Just think if he'd been a married man...he'd have corked Corker good!

[MADem]

5. Maybe you can catch it tomorrow, or set your VCR for late tonite

It was pretty funny.

[EST]

6. I had to think about posting in this thread for a cautious while.

I don't think it is such a bad thing that Harold Ford lost, since the fate of the senate no longer hangs in the balance on his success or failure.

Why, pray tell?
I am a conservative, perhaps, more precisely, a transcendent conservative, maybe a progressive conservative. I am also a liberal conservative. I think people should be left alone unless they need help. Privacy is enormously important and that importance outweighs almost anyone's need to know.

I have watched Harold Ford for a long time and I think his brand of conservatism is too much like that of the current American Taliban. Corker is a corker-an inelegant crook, barely able to conceal his lies and corruption enough to get him elected but he is joining the side that will render him pretty well incapable of the sort of crap that he might otherwise be able to pull.

Had Ford won, he would have been put on a pedestal and been far more responsible for policy than his actual acuity justifies, while the nut-case Corker will be effectively corked.

Ford is a good man, but his wildly "conservative" ideas on some important issues leave me cold. Further seasoning and, maybe, getting out a little more may well make him a bit more pragmatically liberal-or me a little less conservatively liberal.

Wrapping up, his loss, under the circumstances, is easier to accept.

[dbackjon]

7. Agreed.

I am actually GLAD Ford lost, since we won the Senate without him. He is an arrogant, bigoted jerk, who cares only about himself and his family. His refusal to endorse the Democratic Candidate for his seat over his brother tells you where his loyalty lies.

I know a number of Democrats that did not vote for him (voted for no one) because they don't trust him. I voted for him, but with much disdain.

The less we see of Harold Ford Jr. in the future, the better.

[Ethelk2044]

15. Harold Ford

Harold will come back.  Bigger and better than ever.  The
racist people in TN just better be prepared.  The next time he
will win regardless of the bigotry and narrow mindedness of
the South.  I am very proud of him.  He will go far.

[Tippy]

8. It was the color of his skin....pure and simple

I went back and checked several precints, strong Democratic precints, every Democratic candidate in those precints had 20% t0 30% more votes than Ford....Sad but true middle Tennessee is still fighting the Civil War....These Democrats didn't vote for Ford or Corker.....

Ford is talking about running against Senator Alexander in 2008....it didn't work in 2006 and 2008 will be no different. Ford will have to keep it local or move to another state...

[SouthernBelle82]

9. I think so too

And he only lost by three percent. If there wasn't any "voting machine's" around than he could have done better and those votes that went "missing." He could always run again when Lamar Alexander's seat is up. I just find it interesting how in Tennessee that we have a democratic governor and some places mayor's and republican Congress members and Senators.

[politicasista]

10. He'll be a player in the Democratic party in the future

Hope he runs for Alexander's seat in 08.

[bigdarryl]

13. Alexander is to popular he would loose again

[pf99]

11. IMHO the biggest thing working against Ford...

was that this race was billed as the race for control of the US Senate.

There were a lot of Republican who did not like Corker but voted for him anyway because they feared that Democrats would gain control the US Senate.

It's rather ironic that the Democrats gained control in Virgina.

[Claire Beth]

12. Harold Ford, Jr.

has so much class. He would have been SOOOO much better than Corker.

[Tippy]

14. A New Southern Strartegy

" Tonight, the South -- aka "Jesusland" -- has a message for those national Democratic wizards: No, fuck you. If the Senate lands in Democratic hands, it'll be thanks to Claire McCaskill's triumph in Missouri and Jim Webb's stunning win in Virginia over the man who was once conservative Republicans' great hope for the White House in 2008. It will not be thanks to the candidate who ran the sort of Southern campaign the sages called "perfect" -- Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, who went far beyond triangulation and out-Republicaned his opponent with hard lines on gay marriage, immigration, national defense, guns, and an array of Bible quotes that could whip John Ashcroft in a holiness contest any day."

< http://www.alternet.org/story/44085 >

I told him he best start wearing his Yellow Dog button again...Told him more than once actually...After he told me he had one....