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wyldwolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-01-06 07:19 AM
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Will Tennessee Buy a Ford?
This from NewDonkey.com:

It's not a particularly penetrating analysis of the Tennessee Senate race, but Robin Toner's piece today in the New York Times on Harold Ford's campaign does supply one very interesting anectdote:

Mr. Ford, a five-term congressman from Memphis, rouses his audiences, white and black, with little parables of political possibility: How he was driving back to Memphis one day on the campaign trail, fired up after a meeting at a church, and decided to stop and shake hands at a bar and grill called the Little Rebel. How he looked with some trepidation at the Confederate flag outside and the parking lot filled with pickup trucks, covered with bumper stickers for President Bush and the National Rifle Association.

And how he was greeted, when he walked through the door, by a woman at the bar who gave him a huge hug. "And she said, 'Baby, we've been waiting to see you.' "


That's actually an accurate parable of U.S. politics in Tennessee, the South, and America at large: voters are ready to fire the GOP, and Democrats simply need to seal the deal. The door is open; we have to take down the "Do Not Disturb" sign that has signalled voters Democrats only care about their own, and reach out aggressively to people who cast ballots for W., and regret it.
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skipos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-01-06 07:49 AM
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1. We need Corker to win the nomination, Ford does best against him
at least in the polls I have seen. It is hard to believe that blacks have such an uphill battle getting elected to the senate, even moreso in the south. He may do it though, but it is going tobe some serious work.
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MemphisTiger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-01-06 08:07 AM
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2. The problem is not that he is black it's that his last name is FORD
and he is from Memphis. People in other parts of TN don't like Memphis and the Ford political family is quite corrupt. Eventhough, Jr. has been clean being associated with any wrong doing in his political career the mindset is like father, uncles, aunt like son.
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skipos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-01-06 08:20 AM
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3. You think that its only a fluke that we've had 3 popularly elected black
senators since reconstruction? I think racism has a little something to do with it.

I'd say another problem Ford has is the (D) after his name. Tennessee hasn't been electing to many of those for the last several years.

Our best hope is that Corker gets the repub nomination, as more fundies will sit out of the race if that happens.
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MemphisTiger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-01-06 08:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. It's a different TN now. You can't compare today with
just after reconstruction. I think it's more to do with the fact that he's from Memphis and his family name. It's just tarnished around here. I'll be the first to admit that his family is dirty, but in my mind Jr. is okay. He hasn't done that much in congress, hopefully he'll be able to change that in the senate.
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