The Tennessean: We’ll play the race card so Ford doesn’t have to
The Tennessean says that the race between Ford and Corker will be seen as racial milepost. They also state that Tennessee voters may find out whether their state is ready to send a black man to the U.S. Senate. When he loses, it’s because you’re a racist. Smarminess aside, for me, I don’t care about the color of the candidates but I have wondered if Tennessee is ready to elect a black guy. I tend to think Tennessee is because Ford, a candidate with a record that is not supportive of who he claims to be now, has pulled this race much closer than I thought he would.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:42 am
If Ford had an R after his name, and a voting record that didn’t do a 180 in 2003, he’d be a shoo-in.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Re: the attack ad against Harold Ford – rather than it being a race attack ad, I prefer to think of it as suggesting Ford dates bimbos.
November 6th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
IIRC, Bobby Jindal, when he was running for governor of La., was ahead in the polls and then lost on election day. Some attributed the difference between the polling numbers and election day as people who told pollsters that they would vote for Jindal and then voted the other way in the privacy of the voting booth.
November 6th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
“The whole world is watching.” Oh brother.
If Harold Ford loses, and it appears he will, it will not be his campaign that brought him down. It will be the actions of over-zealous supporters like writer Bonna de la Cruz.
Ford did make a tactical error with the Memphis parking lot confrontation. However, it was not a fatal error. The Corker campaign brilliantly responded by calling it the “Memphis meltdown”, which it was not. Tom Ingram at his slimy best.
Ford’s campaign all came undone with the “bimbo ad”. The response to the bimbo ad was pivotal. Was it designed to elicit that response? Probably. Country Club Republicans do not like to be called racist. It appears that editorials, television, and radio coverage of the bimbo ad fired up the Country Club set and Ford’s poll numbers plummeted.
John Kerry didn’t help Harold Ford either. If Ford loses, Tennessee will be called Crackerville. You can count on it.
November 6th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
It’s the same all over. The editorial looks like a cut and paste job since I’ve seen the identical wording over at the Leftist Enquirer in Columbus.
Yep, politics and party doesn’t matter.
If you’re white, you’re supposed to pull the lever for Ford to assuage your guilt and Prove you’re not a racist
November 6th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Why? Because Corker hires trackers, and the race-pimps are hard of hearing?
November 6th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Ford quoted 4th District Congressman, Lincoln Davis (D) recently when he said, “the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans fear the LORD and Democrats fear and love the LORD”. Davis VOTES pro-gun (an A rating with Gunowners of America–more hard-line than the NRA), pro-life, for prayer and the 10 commandments in schools and has an “A” rating with Americans for Better Immigration which opposes illegal immigration and amnesty. So IF Ford had repented and voted like Davis, I’d be voting for him.
There may be a few voting against him because of race, even more voting for him because of race and even more voting for him because of party, but I vote for a candidate because of their record and not their rhetoric.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
the race between Ford and Corker will be seen as racial milepost.
Like it or not, true or not, it will be.
I think it would be a better test if the parties were reversed. If solidly-red Tennessee suddenly sent a Democrat to the Senate in a year in which the Republican candidate just-so-happened to be black, that would be a bad thing.
In the end, I think racism still has more pull than I’d care to admit (not just here, but everywhere), but I’m not sure it’s enough to swing the race.