JONATHAN CHAIT MARCH 1, 2010
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In a huge blow to political pundits like me, Harold Ford has decided not to run for Senate. This is the professional equivalent of the Kennedy assassination. We shall never see the likes of Harold Ford again.
Ford's parting gift is an op-ed explaining his decision not to run. He can't not lie:
“I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weak-ened and the Republican strengthened,” Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times
I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans.”
3 comments
Harold Ford is a particularly useful kind of Democrat. He actually understands voters in places like the South, which was the main reason Clinton was the most successful Democrat since FDR. This is a political fact lost on the Vanguard of the Proletariat element of the party.
- Robert Powell
March 2, 2010 at 10:11am
Good. But you're right JC, he will be missed. His clueless, entitled plutocrat stunt was great fodder while it lasted (nice 2 million dollar a year job to sit in meetings be a former Senator - when he's not helicoptering to the burroughs). It would have been fun watching Anthony Weiner kick his fool tuckus. But more importantly, he does not represent the views of New Yorkers and has little grasp of the issues beyond cant. He's comes across as a hopeless phony.
- WandreyCer
March 2, 2010 at 10:36am
You're celebrating without cause, unfortunately. You see, there is a constant amount of batshit craziness in the Universe. The law of conservation of batshit craziness implies that a reduction in any one place must be simultaneously offset by a corresponding increase somewhere else. And sure enough, Mickey Kaus is running for Senate.
- ratnerstar
March 2, 2010 at 11:55am