About Harold Ford...

[cynatnite]

This is a black democrat who got 48% of the vote here in TN. No small task.

I know many here don't like him because of his conservative stances, but he had to position himself as such considering how TN is. This isn't Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Ford came closer than anyone else to turning Tennessee into a blue state. I'm proud to have voted for him.

Last night he said these words and earned my respect...

"I love this country more than I love this process," Ford said. "As debasing as it can be, sometimes we forget that when
Politics works, Americans live better and safer lives."

[dogday]

1. I believe Ford's career is far from over, he

has the stuff and will eventually hold office. I believe he will win his next race...

[wholetruth00]

11. Me too.

[helderheid]

2. Good on both of ya

[vi5]

3. I don't care about him running conservatively...

I understood that he had to do the "values" thing and the religious aspect of it and even maybe be more hawkish than I would prefer.

Where he lost me completely was in being a total hypocrite by complaining that the Corker campaign was pandering to bigots and prejudice to get votes and then turning around and doing the same thing to gay people. I can forgive running conservatively in TN. But don't spend one week whining about how your opponent is using lowest common denominator stereotypes and bigotry to pander to voters and then do it yourself to another form of minority group.

[Window]

4. I couldn't vote for him, but

I wish I could have. His career is far from over.


Peace

[indepat]

5. Corker will be a rubber stamp for W's agenda, but Ford's vote for torture,

suspension of habeas corpus, near dictatorial powers, and martial law on W's whim is unforgivable and unforgettable.

[TornadoTN]

9. That's where Ford really disappointed me and it may have cost him

From what we saw yesterday and heard from across the state, the exit polling was showing people that indentified themselves as Independent just didn't see enough difference between the two candidates to vote for Ford (if they were right leaning to begin with). A lot of people were very turned off that he didn't speak out forcefully against our current direction in Iraq and then he had to go and vote in favor of suspending habeas corpus and the torture bill.

In the end, Ford would have been a better Senator but he didnt capitalize on the hand he was dealt. Part of that was because he was constantly always put on the defensive as well as he wasn't effective on getting his message across the masses. I'm hoping Ford learns from this and changes his perspective on these issues because if he does, he has a great shot at taking on Alexander if he so chooses.

[TornadoTN]

6. Great words, Ford is not out by a long shot

I'm not a big fan of Ford, but I worked my ass off for the man because he was the right man at this time for Tennessee. His undoing came by not stressing the differences between himself and Corker in order to sway the right-leaning indies in the state, which he would undoubtebly have to do in order to win the state.

We haven't seen the last of Ford, that's for certain. While I am thouroughly unimpressed with his positions on Iraq, etc., I am very proud to say I voted for and tried our best to get him elected.

[DakotaDemocrat]

7. If he was born in Illinois...

...we'd be talking about Harold Ford for '08...

I went channel-surfing when the candidates spoke. His concession speech was the only one I stuck for. Inspirational.

But I was also drunker than a gourd around that time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. We haven't seen the last of him.

He's got a good outlook on life.

[iamjoy]

10. I Respect Ford Too, It's A Shame

I haven't heard too much about him, but from what I have, he seems to genuinely believe a lot of what he says. And while at first I rolled my eyes at the idea of the Ten Commandments on the back of his card, I started thinking about it.

Remember that Congressman Colbert interviewed who wanted the Ten Commandments posted in Congress, but then couldn't name all of them? I bet Harold Ford can name them.

And then, I started thinking about the Commandments. If you are atheist or agnostic some of them are irrelevant (don't take the name of the lord in vain - whatever). However, most of them are pretty good stuff.

Honor thy father and mother.
Unless they are abusive, you should respect your parents.

Thou shalt not steal
Stealing is bad.

Thou shalt not kill (or thou shalt not commit murder)
Taking a life is bad (unless self defense).

Thou shalt not bear false witness (against thy neighbor)
Lying is bad.

Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's posessions
Envy is bad.

So, fully half are good stuff. The rest may seem irrelevant to non-believers, but there's nothing bad there.

added on edit:
I left out adultery because of the different definitions of it. And I know some people do have open marriages. As long as all partners agree to the terms, I don't feel it's my place to judge (although it's not for me).

[Toots]

13. Almost all religions have much good about them but then somehow they get

perverted.

[GeorgeGist]

15. Not many positive 'Commandments'...

and the two that are, are gratuitous.

[Lurking Dem]

12. Some points.

Ford ran a FABULOUS campaign! He is young and he is going places!

Corker ran a disgusting campaign and Tennessee is sending him to the Hill. But keep in mind that the rest of the country effectively castrated him so hopefully he can do little damage.

Corker won:

1) Because of the anti-gay marriage ammendment on the ballot which had the right wing church goers voting in droves.

2) Because Democrats didn't stick together as a machine to get Harold elected. The rants against his conservative leaning costs us a Democrat in Tennessee. The race was close enough that this could have decided it.

3) The Bubba vote who would sooner see Armageddon than a black man in office but this was much less of a factor than the other two.

4) The black vote. I don't know the final tallies but I heard a lot of people saying they weren't going to bother voting because of unfair/stoeln elections in the past. Their loss of faith in the system may have hurt us big.

[stray cat]

14. Sad point of the night - I hope to see Ford again

[theboss]

16. Ford is far from finished

He's got a lot of races left in him.

[UTUSN]

17. I had no idea TN was THAT bad. I didn't speak ill of FORD before

except to lump him in with sL-IMUS's stooges (KERRY, Joementum, DODD, BIDEN), who are MADE FOOLS of by sL-IMUS.

And I understand having to PANDER to survive in a hostile environment. But his little speech that he was going to go to a local diner WITH CONFEDERATE FLAGS and have a beer AND PRAY TO JESUS was way too much for me. What's left----WHITEFACE??

Some of the purists here have said that we have to stand on principle no matter what, win votes JUST with our views on anti-Iraq-Attack, etc. Where does FORD fit in this scenario?

I had wondered how TN had not gone for GORE in 2000. I'm getting the picture. (Not attacking DEMS in TN!!!1)

[TornadoTN]

18. That may have been the kicker

Most Democrats still voted for Ford regardless, but there was a small block of Dems that sat this one out because of Fords pandering to the right. I, myself, was very close on doing just that, if this had not been such an important election and I hadn't put so much time into helping the Ford campaign.

Where this was lost was that Ford did very little to differentiate himself from Corker on the key issues. Independents that lean right or moderate just couldn't push the button for Ford because they felt that there just wasn't enough of a difference between the two of them. A lot of Republicans upset with the war still fell into the Corker camp because Ford didn't offer anything different than the common perception of staying the course.

[me b zola]

19. Ford's concession speech was CLASSY

I have in the past been highly critical of Ford, but for the election of course I zipped it and put my support behind him. There are some things that I respect & admire about Ford, and his concession speech was simply classy.

[NYYFan]

20. Of all people, Don Imus was very upset about his loss

He single handedly blamed the Playboy party ad.