ALL THAT EFFORT WASTED

That’s what I thought after seeing this 8-page Newsweek article on Harold Ford’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. After all the writing, after all the platitudes about Harold Ford being a new type of Democrat, he had a meltdown when he angrily confronted Bob Corker when Corker was about to hold a press conference on lobbying reform.

We’ve all seen the video by now. It isn’t pretty. I suspect that Corker will spend this week talking about what he’ll do when he’s elected as the next senator from Tennessee. I suspect that he’ll slip questions about what to make of Ford’s behavior. The longer he says nothing about Ford’s meltdown, the better off he’ll be. There’s no reason for him to say anything about it because that’ll only give Ford the opportunity to change the subject. That’s the last thing that Corker wants at this point. I’m betting that each day that meltdown image of Ford lingers in Tennessee voters’ minds, another point comes off of Ford’s already-shrinking popularity.

The article is mostly about how untraditional a Democrat Ford is, how he’s a man of faith, that he isn’t an extremist ideologue, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say anything about what a spoiled brat he is and how prone he is to temper tantrums. Thanks to the internet, though, we’ve seen his ’spoiled brat’ side, too.

When Corker described Ford’s stunt as the actions of a desparate man, Ford’s reply that “every poll in the nation shows me leading” rang hollow. If he wasn’t trailing, why pull such a stunt. There’s only two explanations: Either he’s just that much of a spoiled brat who can’t take the heat or he knows that his chance is slipping away and he had to do something. Neither presents a flattering image of Ford.

Barring Corker being caught in a major scandal, this race is essentially over.