Claudia Weaver Elected President Of The Tennessee Young Democrats
Posted on May 16, 2009 at 1:50 pmSo reports the Brainstem from the Young Dems state convention.
Weaver served as Deputy Campaign Manager for David Briley during the 2007 mayoral election and currently works in the Harold Ford, Jr.’s office at Merrill Lynch. Weeaver previously served Ford during the 2006 U.S. Senate campaign as both a scheduler and as South East Tennessee Field Director.
HaFo Defends Big Government On Meet The Press
Posted on April 19, 2009 at 9:22 pmThe transcript of Junior’s appearance on the Sunday chat show:
Spending is large, but what is the alternative? Government’s playing the role of the, the, the, the, the financial investor of last resort, the spender of last resort. We, we fought this, we fought this battle for many years in this country. Think if we’d decided not to pass the Servicemen Readjustment Act back in 1944 called the GI Bill. It was an enormous expenditure. You sent eight million veterans to college, you provided one year of unemployment compensation and you ensured they could buy a home. The impact that had on the nation’s economy going forward, educating that greatest generation, has been enormous. Think if Eisenhower’s national interstate, the highway system would not have passed. It cost $425 billion in real day terms. The impact it’s had on commerce, prosperity and growth has been immeasurable. We face one of those moments. This is one of those 100-year flood moments. And as much as I’d like to see government not engage and involve itself in so many enterprises, I don’t know the alternative. And as much as I like and respect you, I’ve not heard from Republicans or conservatives or the TEA party attenders, what is the alternative? If the alternative, alternative is to sit back and do nothing, the majority of Americans, evidenced by poll after poll, say, “Do something. Be active and get us out of this mess.”
Ford To Speak At Jackson Day
Posted on April 13, 2009 at 6:53 pm
The Tennessee Democratic Party’s annual fundraising event has an all-star speaker:
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman, Chip Forrester, is pleased to announce that Harold Ford, Jr. will be the Keynote Speaker at the Andrew Jackson Day Celebration on May 30, 2009 at the Factory in Franklin, TN. Jackson Day festivities include an afternoon picnic, a dinner and keynote address by Ford, Jr., and an after-party later in the evening.
This is important news because some folks had wondered, due to the turmoil and fundraising problems in the TNDP, whether Chairman Forrester would be able to secure a big name speaker to bring people out on Jackson Day and raise some much needed funds.
It is especially noteworthy because Ford was one of signers, along with the Governor and nearly all of the state Democratic congressmen, of a letter supporting Chairman Forrester’s opponent, Charles Robert Bone.
Ward Cammack Wants A Piece Of This Junior Story
Posted on at 4:59 pmA statement from the gubernatorial candidate on Harold Ford’s decision not to seek the office of governor:
“I will gladly take up Congressman Ford’s call to focus on green jobs and the new economy. We are in an economic reset, and the next governor must have a broad, generational vision and must embrace the new economy.”
Comparing Bobby Jindal And Harold Ford
Posted on March 5, 2009 at 7:45 amJeff Feck sees similarity in Bobby Jindal’s widely panned response to Presidnt Obama’s address to Congress and Harold Ford, Jr.’s speech to the 2000 Democratic National Convention:
We forget it now, but Ford went into his 2000 keynote with the same kind of buzz that Barack Obama had in 2004. He was being touted as the future of the Democratic Party, a likely candidate for the presidency in 2008 or 2012 or so. He was only 30 at the time, but he’d been in the House for two terms already. Add to it the fact that he was African-American, and you had a potential future superstar.
But like most things the Democrats touched in 2000, Ford’s speech did not turn to gold, but rather a sort of silverish aluminum. It was a decent speech, but not transcendent, and certainly not equal to the hype it had received in the days leading up to the event. Ford’s aura was dented severely; by 2006, he was running for — and losing — the Tennessee Senate seat vacated by Bill Frist. Today, he’s mostly known among Democrats for being a Joe Lieberman type — reflexively anti-Democratic, and far too solicitous of Republicans. The idea of a President Harold Ford is ludicrous now — a sharp slide that began in the summer of 2000.
Harold Ford An Unlikely Pick For Commerce
Posted on February 23, 2009 at 4:23 pmBecause the AP says someone else has been chosen:
Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke is President Obama’s latest choice (#3) to head the Commerce Department, a senior administration official tells The Associated Press.
That would make Locke the second high-ranking Asian American in the Obama administration; the other is Energy Secretary Steven Chu. When elected in 1996, Locke became the first Chinese-American governor. He served two terms, which ended in 2005.
Junior had previously been bandied about as a possible pick for the cabinet position.
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Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Gave Extensively To Republicans
Posted on at 8:09 am
It would appear that the Tennessee Democratic Party’s new treasurer is not the only Democrat of note with a history of contributing money to both Democratic and Republican causes.
Post Politics has learned that Ward Cammack, one of two Democrats actively campaigning to succeed Governor Phil Bredesen in 2010, has given to a myriad of Tennessee Republican candidates starting in 1979 with a donation to Senator Howard Baker’s 1980 Presidential run.
While Cammack has supported Congressman Jim Cooper with financial donations steadily throughout his career, a large majority of his donations have gone to Tennessee Republican candidates for federal office. In 1994, the year of the Republican Revolution, Cammack gave extensively to both Bill Frist and Fred Thompson who were victorious in grabbing both of Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seats that year.
Cammack also gave heavily to Lamar Alexander contributing to both his Presidential run in 1996 as well as his initial 2002 Senate run. In 2008, Cammack gave heavily to Alexander’s opponent Bob Tuke.
Cammack’s most recent Republican donation was in late 2005 when he contributed $500 to Bob Corker’s 2006 Senate primary campaign though Cammack tells Post Politics he ultimately voted for Corker’s opponent Harold Ford, Jr.
In discussing his party shift, Cammack cannot point to any “Road to Damacus” moment but admits that he is “clearly a convert” to the Democratic cause and credits the Bush years for his shift in worldview.
“Everything has changed. A lot of things people thought they had to protect, be it money or a set of so-called moral beliefs, have proved illusory,” Cammack explains. “All we really have is each other.”
Cammack, whose first Democratic vote for President was cast last fall for Barack Obama, said it was the exclusionary tactics of the GOP which led him to begin to question the staunch Republicanism he had learned as a child.
“Eventually you just have to ask: What is this all about? Why are we marginalizing people like this?” Cammack explains.
When asked whether he could pinpoint whether it was Republican policies on social issues, economic issues or foreign policy that ultimate let to his conversion, Cammack was unequivocal.
“All of the above,” replied Cammack.
Cammack does expect that some may be skeptical of his political past but insists that the Democratic Party is a “very comfortable skin for him.”
“Yes, I have given [money] to Republicans in the past and I have voted for Republicans in the past. I have never tried to hide that,” Cammack says. “But if you ask me if I believe in the Democratic Party, the answer is yes. Yes, I do.”
SEE ALSO: The Rotunda asks: “[I]s there a prominent Democrat expanding the tent of the party to reach the affluent white guys like Ward Cammack and Bill Freeman?”
Commerce Secretary Speculation Surrounds Junior
Posted on February 14, 2009 at 12:34 pmHarold Ford, Jr.’s name is again among those being bandied about for the cabinet position and sources have made clear he has no “Merrill” problem:
Ford’s folks tell me that he never received a bonus in his time at Merrill Lynch nor was he involved in developing or selling anything having to do with mortgage securities. Ford’s job was simply business development and advising clients on domestic or int’l issues. Bottom line: no one close to Ford believes he has a Merrill problem.
SEE ALSO:
Chuck Todd
Mediaverse
Jack And Jill
He’s Just A Good, God-Fearing Tennessean Like Yourself
Posted on January 7, 2009 at 4:18 pmChris Jackson stands up for his friend Harold Ford, Jr. amid speculation he may run for Governor:
Now, a few corrections from blogs I’ve read. Ford is a Tennessee homeowner, a registered Tennessee voter, a Tennessee taxpayer and maintains a business office in Nashville. Like Bill Frist and Fred Thompson, he enjoys and benefits Tennessee with a national political and business profile.
If he does run for and win the Governor’s office, his national relationships can only benefit our state’s chances of attracting new jobs and opportunity to our state. But as he said, let’s focus our energy on putting the economic interests of Tennesseans ahead of the political appetite of the state’s political class.
Junior Ponders A Run For Governor
Posted on at 8:16 amBut how hard is the man really thinking? Most people who advance in politics past a certain level either possess, or obtain, a rather healthy ego and anyone who wants to continue in politics knows you need your name out there. You need people talking about you so if you do decide to move up or get back in the game, you don’t start out any further behind the pack in name ID and support than you need to.
So is Harold Ford really pondering a run for Governor or is he just talking in rather vague tones about the speculation surrounding him to keep his name in the paper until such time as he would have to make a real commitment to running?
Yes, Ford came within a hair’s breath of defeating Bob Corker for Bill Frist’s open Senate seat in 2006. But, the point is, he lost. He lost in a year when Democrats were upending Republicans and exceeding expectations all over the country. Bob Corker was, in fact, the only freshman Republican Senator in the class of 2006.
If Harold Ford, an African-American with a tainted political pedigree, was going to win statewide in this increasingly red state of ours, 2006 would have been the year. The stars were aligned as it were and he fell short.
If he fell short then, what would would be different now, especially since he would be running for an executive office, not a legislative one?
Voters, while not extremely astute by and large, intuitively understand the difference between the two offices and take into account the different skill set needed for the two offices. Sending someone off to Washington to vote on national issues in a far different thing than handing over the keys to the kingdom in Tennessee.
And while he certainly has the name ID and the network of support to mount a campaign, Ford hasn’t really been involved on the ground in the state to the degree one would expect a potential governor to be.
He does national televsion. He is in charge of a national political organization and his work for Merrill Lynch has him out of state much of the time in New York where is wife is a native. In fact, it was not so long ago that Harold Ford’s name came up in another potential political race — in New York.
Ford certainly has a base here in state and the potential to do well across the grand divisions — but doing well and winning are two different things.
The pendulum may swing back blue in Tennessee eventually but, by all accounts, that day is not at hand. If Harold Ford is smart (and he is) he will welcome the speculation and even encourage it for the sake of keeping his name in the media as a political player but, ultimately, he will either wait out the red tide rising in the state or find a new state in which to run — if he does in fact want back in the game of electoral politics.
SEE ALSO: GoldnI
Ya Gotta Have Faith: Tim McGraw Serious About Gubernatorial Run?
Posted on December 10, 2008 at 7:39 amThe New Republic thinks the Tennessee Democratic Party may have no other choice but to heavily recruit and back the country singer:
He’s been floating the idea for a few years now, but with the recent thrashing of lawyer Bob Tuke by Lamar Alexander in last month’s senate race, Tennessee Dems have been casting about desperately for a high-profile Democrat not named Harold Ford to take on Bill Frist, who is almost certainly going to run. And they could do a lot worse, I suppose, than the Indian Outlaw. Which is saying something.
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This One Not Like That One
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 9:26 am
Pollster.com compares the current presidential race to the 2006 U.S. Senate race between Bob Corker and Harold Ford:
The differences between early deciders and late deciders are opposite of what we would expect if there was a race effect among late deciders. Whites who decided within the last week and a half of the campaign were actually 8% more likely to vote for Ford than those who made up their minds earlier. The same pattern held for less educated whites, rural whites, and whites living in eastern Tennessee. The only two groups where Ford did not do better among late deciders was for low income whites and older whites. But even in this case, Ford performed about as well as he did with early deciders, not significantly worse.
What does this mean for the presidential race? It depends on the extent to which you think the case of Tennessee in 2006 can be applied to the 2008 presidential contest. On one hand, the demography of Tennessee would seem to make it a good place to look for race effects among late deciders. On the other hand, electing someone to the Senate in a midterm election is a bit different from electing a president. But if you believe the comparison, then the experience from Tennessee in 2006 would suggest that there is little reason to expect late deciders to break against Obama because of his race.
SEE ALSO:
Mark Mays breaks down why this is a shoddy comparison.
Bruce Barry finds this interesting as well.
Race Base
Posted on October 14, 2008 at 9:41 amTerry Frank thinks both Lamar Alexander and Barack Obama have a few things to learn on the subject of racial politics — from Harold Ford, Jr.
Unlike Barack Obama, Harold Ford Jr. didn’t campaign as a history maker because of his race. Oh, the Tennessean tried to set it up that way, but it didn’t come from the campaign. Jr. campaigned as a Tennessean with ideas and policies that he favored. And he ran a neck and neck race in a state where Barack Obama is now getting stomped in all polling. And minus the mega-millions from one of the very richest members of our U.S. Senate and the rain cloud courtesy of his corrupt uncle, he would probably be our U.S. Senator today.
Jr. has transcended race more than Barack Obama could ever dream of transcending. And that’s because Jr. focused on ideas, on Tennesseans, and on policy.
Alexander could learn a few things from Harold Ford Jr. And that would be appealing to the black community based on ideas and on policy just as Harold Ford appealed to whites in Tennessee. Pandering won’t ever deliver the GOP any votes and never has.
What Does Her Race Have To Do With It?
Posted on October 12, 2008 at 4:31 pmHarold Ford, Jr. takes John McCain to task for not denouncing an ad from his 2006 Senate Race:
While I am disappointed in McCain’s about-face, I am not surprised. When I ran for the Senate in 2006, my opponent, Bob Corker, also found himself trailing in the October polls. His campaign and the Republican National Committee launched a series of false and vicious character attack ads, including the infamous “call me” ad, in which a scantily clad white woman looked at the camera and said, “Harold, call me.”
Every major news organization and independent ad-checking group ruled the ad a smear and deemed it way over the line. But that didn’t stop John McCain from coming to Tennessee and campaigning for my opponent while the “call me” ad and other smears were broadcast across the state. Not once did McCain speak out against that ad as he did about the smear against John Kerry. In fact, the first manager he hired for his 2008 presidential campaign was Terry Nelson, the person who produced the “call me” ad.
What exactly is the point of inserting the word “white” in the above sentence? Is Harold Ford suggesting that the ad contained some sort of racial code?
Because back in the day, Ford himself said he didn’t think “race had anything to do with that ad.”
So has Ford changed his mind on the now infamous ad or is he subtly using a myth that has been allowed to gestate in the national media’s subconscious for craven political advantage?
The language in an op/ed like this one is very carefully chosen and reviewed. Can we really pretend to assume that the word “white” was just a descriptive adjective choice? Or must we conclude thatFord was trying to send the message that he now agrees with the popular media myth about the “Call Me” ad?
Which is it? Was the ad racial code or not?
UPDATE: From just this week:
As Harold Ford Jr. told me in Nashville: “If Barack were not African-American, they’d be doing this.”
Wrappin’ It Up
Posted on October 7, 2008 at 11:10 pm
It certainly was an experience consuming a debate this way amongst the hustle and bustle of the national media just yards away from the actors on the stage.
Watching the reality of the “Spin Alley” you hear and read so much about up close and personal was an eye opener. Listening to local and national political figures spouting out prepackaged, fluffier-than-fluff instant reactions to reporters desperately sopping every tidbit they could to make deadline or get a story instantly up on the web was something to behold.
Is this process really that conducive to the pursuit of truth? Yeah, that’s a rhetorical question.
Anyway, here are some of the quotations I was able to get amongst the crowds of the national and local press pursuing truth.
Harold Ford, Jr.: “Overall this debate will not change the dynamic of race in any meaningful way. Obama is ahead nationally and in the swing states. Obama did good tonight, very good and I think the polls will bear him out as the winner tomorrow.”
State Rep. Beth Harwell: “Senator Obama, while he performed quite well, really contradicted himself in several meaningful ways tonight. For instance on taxes he said things tonight I don’t remember hearing before. I remember hearing the opposite. I think that will hurt him.”
Phil Bredesen: “[Obama] looked like a president out there tonight.”
The one gem I found out there came in the form of reaction to McCain’s proposal to bailout individual homeowners. Both Bredesen and Ford also seemed intrigued by the idea. Their answers seem to indicate either a departure from or a lack of direction from Obama handlers, although I could be wrong.
Bredesen called it “an interesting idea.” Ford echoed that sentiment, “The way he proposed it tonight by sort of throwing it out it there was interesting. It obviously needs to be fleshed out. I don’t know if it is feasible but it certainly requires some thought.”
As for my take, while McCain certainly delivered a capable performance hitting his talking points and staying on message, Obama really did bring it home with some finely nuanced answers to questions.
Just as in the first debate, Obama took no hits and delivered a presidential level performance. Like I said earlier, tie goes to the man ahead. That man is Obama.
With the economy the way it is without a game changer, either in the final presidential debate or somewhere else, it’s pretty clear where this thing is going absent a serious and unforeseen Bradley Effect.
SEE ALSO: More pics from Spin Alley.
They Don’t Want No Civil War: The Belmont Civility Forum
Posted on October 6, 2008 at 5:35 pmPhil Bredesen’s civility forum this afternoon sponsored by the Tennessee Business Roundtable and the Freedom Forum featuring both political and media bigwigs turned out some extremely enlightening discussion over the state of political discourse in the nation.
The headliners of the event, Phil Bredesen and Senator Howard Baker, were not part of the geberal panel discussion but did set the tone with short speeches
Howard Baker explained that while excitement for cause and party are part of the process those stimuli should not result in us losing our way to the extent we have.
“Not withstanding the enthusiasm of debate, people must come with an open mind about what people have to say,” Baker said.
Phil Bredesen said that as we hit the “home stretch of one of the hardest fought campaigns” in memory, it is in our interest to “hit the pause button” and reflect.
Bredesen credited his wife Andrea Conte, for spearheading this effort.
Both Bredesen and Baker called for a new respect for governing rather than the uber-concentration on raw politics.
“Politics is a contact sport. Anything we can do to put respect back in the process is essential,” Bredesen explained.
After the speeches by Bredesen and Baker, panelists former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, NBC News VP Mark Whitaker, Bill Nichols of the Politico and moderator Bernard Shaw were introduced.
After taking their seats the assembled audience was treated to an mini history of political advertising.
Starting with the 1964 campaign’s Daisy Ad, the videos showed ads from Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford crescendoing into 1988’s Willie Horton ad as well as the “swift boat” ads of 2004. Advertising from both John McCain and Barack Obama were also featured.
Haley Barbour started out the discussion outlining his barometer for appropriate negativism campaigns. Barbour asks only two questions, “Is it true and is it relevant?”
Barbour went on to argue that this decline in civil discourse is not a result of any change in politics but a change in media.
“What’s happening is not new,” explains Barbour. “There is just more media to broadcast it.”
While Patricia Schroeder did not disagree, she put the coarsening of our political culture chiefly on the way Congressional districts have been drawn. Reapportionment, she asserted, led to districts which are reliably either Republican or Democratic. These safe districts, Schroeder argues, encourage extremism.
“These people are scared of getting primaries, not losing general elections,” explained Schroeder.
Mark Whitaker chimed in with an interesting assertion. He argued that it was not just the candidates and the campaigns will to win that led them to go negative.
He said that political donors hold sway over politicians not only when they govern but when they campaign as well. Candidates get pressure from big partisan donors to attack — and they often get what they pay for.
Haley Barbour offered the observation that in the era of 24 hour media and McCain/Feingold campaigns don’t control their messages anymore. They could not stop the negativism even if they wanted to. Third party groups and the attacks they produce often shape the political discourse in ways that campaigns cannot control.
Bill Nichols concurred pointing to the advent and prominence of underground viral email campaigns such as the emails detailing wildly inaccurate connections of Barack Obama to the religion of Islam.
When Bernard Shaw asked what had happened to fundamental respect, the discussion again turned to reapportionment that the safeness of certain district has a polarizing effect.
Most interesting was the discussion of Harold Ford, Jr., who was in the audience. He was held out as an exception to the rule, that despite the safeness of his Memphis district, Ford was willing to work in a bipartisan fashion.
Haley Barbour, though, subtly called a bit of shenanigans on that assertion noting that Ford, for a long time, had been looking at a statewide political future.
“He was thinking of Tennessee not some narrow congressional district,” explained Barbour.
The former Mississippi Governor also pointed out the reason why Governors seem to be less polarizing figures than those in Congress.
“Senators talk about doing things. Governors actually have to take action…Governors get judged on results. Period.”
The dean of journalism John Seigenthaler brought the panel to a close noting that while the word civility is not in the forty five words of the First Amendment, it is still nonetheless an important goal to strive for.
Seigenthaler emphasized that there is marked a coarseness in our political culture which is dangerous.
“When will the people say enough?” asked Seigenthaler. “Will we wait too long?”
Harold Ford, Jr. On The Palin Performance
Posted on October 3, 2008 at 8:57 amVia Think Progress:
“[S]he had a set of answers to a set of questions, even if the question was not asked she was going to provide the answer.”
Harold Ford To Join Discussion With DLC Founder In Nashville
Posted on October 1, 2008 at 12:12 pmHost Senator Jim Kyle has just announced that Democratic Leadership Council Chair Harold Ford will join his “Nashville Conversation” patterned on the DLC’s “National Conversation”, the latest of which was held in Nashville.
The talking will commence on Monday at 4:00pm at 417 Union Street. From, Ford and Kyle will be discussing the national landscape facing Democrats in 2008.
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