Profile of Harold Ford, Jr.

Ford, a 5-term Congressman from 1997 to 2007, has announced that he is considering running for New York's U.S. Senate seat in 2010. Ford was Tennessee's 2006 Democratic nominee, a race he narrowly lost despite his opponent's racist-tinged campaign.

In January 2006, Ford was named Chair of Democratic Leadership Council, an influential think tank for moderate Democrats, and was a active member of the House's Blue Dog Democrats. He delivered the keynote address at the 2000 Democratic Convention, and brashly opposed Nancy Pelosi in 2002 for House Minority Leader.

Ford's Congressional voting on the issues reflected independent centrist thinking. He supported embryonic stem cell research, voted against the Patriot Act, and strongly supported public health and education. He opposed NSA warrantless spying, but was an early supporter of the Iraq War. He then also opposed gay marriage and laid claim to being pro-life.

In 2010, though, Ford moved away from his opposition to both gay marriage and staunchly pro-life stances. Interestingly, in 2010, Ford opposes the proposed health care reform legislation, and supported bailouts of Wall street as "the lifeblood" of New York.

"He is, in the tradition of Southern pols ranging from Huey Long to Bill Clinton, a preternaturally gifted campaigner. Young, single, handsome in a way that pols almost never are (he is the only elected official I've ever seen who could have a successful career as a model), blessed with a perfect ear for both political argument and the exigencies of local politics, Ford is a sight to behold."
-- Washington Post op-ed columnist Harold Meyerson, on August 23, 2006

"Listen to Ford talk, and he is the very measure of a modern Southern Democrat. His voting record, however, tells a slightly different tale. Ford is among the most liberal members of the Tennessee delegation, with a lifetime rating of 20 (on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being arch-conservative) from the American Conservative Union. The ratings index for that group’s liberal counterpart, the Americans for Democratic Action, reflects the same thing, just in reverse... "
-- Metro Pulse, a Knoxville newspaper, on June 3, 2004

"... progressive blacks, including the 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus that belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, are loathe to confront treason in the ranks, and thus allow malefactors like Harold Ford to work their show for the rich white corporate folks, without political penalty. Ford’s constituents in Memphis don’t even know that he’s stabbing them in the back. "
-- The Black Commentator, on January 6, 2005

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