Rep. Harold Ford Jr. will run for Bill Frist's seat

The Hill ^ | 2/16/05 | Bob Cusack and Hans Nichols

[JCRoberts]

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. will run for Bill Frist's seat...Derrick Jeter complains of identity theft.

[hosepipe]

He's too white.?.

[Rumplemeyer]

Junior is a light weight, the Republican machine in Tenn. will eat him alive.

[jimbergin]

Ford is popular in Memphis, not elsewhere. Unlikely he will win.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Middle and east tenneseeans generally don't like Memphians."

---

True, but Western and Central Pennsylvanians generally dislike Philadelphians, and Ed Rendell still won the governorship, winning huge margins in the Philly metro area and keeping most of the Democrat vote outstate. Republicans need to pick their best possible candidate in the primary to take on Ford---in my opinion, that would be former Congressman Ed Bryant, who is also from Shelby County and should hold down Ford's margins in the Memphis area.

[goldstategop]

He may be too conservative for Democrats. It wouldn't be a handicap in a Red State like Tennessee but the Michael Moore types don't take kindly to someone who can work with Republicans. Harold Ford is all the things you like to see in a Democrat. If he can win Bill Frist's seat, and assuming Hillary doesn't win in 2008, that opens the door to a Presidential bid in 2012. He still has time to show an African-American is presidential material.

Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."

[HostileTerritory]

I doubt that any of the other candidates of his stature (congressmen) want to risk their careers for a probable loss.

[mnehring]

Interesting,
I just checked DU and about half of them don't like Ford. They call him a Republican in disguise.

Someone should send him a link to DU to see not only what they say about him but what the modern dem party has become.

Maybe he'll be more than a Republican in disguise in the future.

[newgeezer]

Lincoln Davis

!? {snicker} Now THERE's a name you don't see every day!

[HostileTerritory]

Rendell was able to pick up the votes of loads of Republicans in the Philly suburbs. I suspect that Ford would have a very difficult time doing the same among Republicans in Shelby County--to say the dynamic is a little different there would be an understatement.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Not with the skeletons in his fmily history.

[newgeezer]

Sure, he could make the switch from DINO to RINO. :-)

[Grendel9]

You can bet Hillary will choose Ford over Obama...
she needs southern exposure!

[ConservativeDude]

He does look like a homo. That is not WH material.

That said, he is seen as a rising star. This is good news and bad news, then. Great if we cut him off. Bad if he gets in b/c we lose a seat and promote a potential star.

Although it will be interesting to see him and Osama bin Obama try to crowd each other out of the limelight.

[HostileTerritory]

Ford will join Senators Tenenbaum, Bowles, Sanders, John, Castor, Cleland, Majette, Clement, and Mongiardo in the alternate universe where promising, hyped-to-the-skies southern Democrats actually win Senate races while George W. Bush is President.

[mnehring]

I have less problems with RINOs than most here.
It is all a numbers game. Real Republicans won't have a voice if it weren't for the few RINOs that put our numbers over the top.
I'd rather vote for a RINO than a Dem.

[Luke21]

Does Tennessee have a city with 200 Democrat percent turnout like Philadelphia does? That's apples and oranges.

[freeperfromnj]

Exactly

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

I don't know if the Pennsylvania/Tennessee comparison quite lines up. The Philly suburbs are made up of pro-abort Republicans. Philadelphia itself is a very big place and can put a dent in any Republican's vote lead. I don't think Memphis is quite big enough to have the "dead vote" sway the election, and I don't know of any moderate Republican strongholds in Tennessee comprable to the Philly suburbs. (Though I welcome anyone who knows the state to correct me on that)

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

LOL!

Good point.