Frank has a terrific post at polar donkey regarding a recent coffee held on behalf of Harold The Younger in Nashville, where the Man Who Would Be Senator has a rougher than expected go of it.
An excerpt:
A couple months ago, I said that Ford is a paper tiger. He never had to fight in a campaign with his back to the wall. With the Zogby poll from last week showing him trailing Bryant 51-40, we know he is in a tough spot. During a election when democrats are expected to make big possible gains in both Houses of Congress, one of the “future stars of the party” is going to get beaten handily. From the descriptions of what happened at the coffee, Ford seems to be buckling under the pressure.
During the coffee, Ford took questions from the attendees. They asked very pointed questions about the bankruptcy bill, Schiavo, his failure to vote on the budget rather than miss the coon dinner, and other issues. Apparently during the questioning, something snapped in Ford’s head. Maybe he realized that these were democratic activists who, no matter what he would do, will not support him and he doesn’t have a chance of winning without them. Ford became agitated by the questions, snapping at the audience and dismissing their views. He raised his voice several times. Afterwards, attendees described Ford as coming “unglued.” To add insult to injury, Rosiland Kurita appeared at coffee hosted by Democracy for Nashville three weeks later. She was smooth as could be and did well.
Go read the rest of it...
5 comments:
Interesting that you got those two spam posts in response to an item about Junior. I'm sure if we think about it long enough, we'll see some appropiateness to that.
I agree Kurita has been slow in fundraising, and that is being worked on as I write; however, poll results like Zogby's may slow Mr. Ford's as well.
What I find interesting is that Corker is kicking both Bryant and Hilleary in the ass in fundraising, yet he doesn't seem to be doing as well in the polls as either of them. He'd better start spending it soon...
Anyone who looks at an incumbant's fundraising over a challenger as specific proof that the candidate isn't weak doesn't really see the forest. Junior--part of a machine family--has his machine running at capacity. Everyone else is running like a start up in a crappy economy.
This line of illogic isn't far from the people who saw Dean's fundraising as a clear sign of victory (I was one of the poor dupes). Really, it only means you're a good fundraiser--you still have to be a candidate, just like everybody else. People are strapped for cash right now. Gas is soaring, and every round of disaster comes with another round of fundraising. My guess is that grassroots dollars are going to be awfully hard to come by for some time now. This gives Ford a HUGE fundraising advantage.
And hurts Kurita in the process, since she's not shaking down big corporation PACs for donations.
The Zogby polls tend to be accurate, if I remember. How is Junior going to explain away the bitch-slapping he got last week, small sample size?
Paging Chris D. Jackson....
I posted about my experience with Harold Ford at a Meet & Greet where I asked him about his vote on the bankruptcy bill. His answer did not impress me at all. http://tennesseansforfeingold.blogspot.com/2006/01/meet-greet-with-harold-ford-jr.html
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