Ol’ crazy hot Marsha Blackburn has not yet ruled out running for governor, calling it something requiring “serious thought;” Harold Ford Jr. says it’s too early to commit to anything. So, clearly, this needs to happen. Blackburn v. Ford! The media would be all over that action.
God bless Phil Bredesen for his Blue Dog Democrat tendencies and hilarious refusal to give Barack Obama even the slightest compliment during the campaign, but, following in Lamar Alexander’s buffalo plaid campaign poster tradition, he lacks antics. He’s antic-less. Tennessee politics loves non-stop antics.
From “I’m never been proud” to the the EPIC Nikki Tinker Campaign of Random Bigotry and all the way back to the worldly days of the Playboy Harold Ford ad, Tennessee crazy (sans “is”). A Blackburn/Ford campaign would not only offer Tennessee one of those No Matter Who Wins, It’s Historic situations with maximum publicity for the state.
Regardless of the awesomeness of it all, Blackburn and Ford represent the soul search the increasingly purple South may find itself in the midst of: Blue Dog Sturdiness and Jesus / Jesus, Keep the Government Out of the Auto Industry contingencies. Marsha Blackburn champions the brash, politically incorrect, drill now, God bless American and guns, pro-business with Harold Ford on the increasingly diminishing Blue Dog Democratic Leadership Council — mixing your Nashvillian smoking bans in with the public works history.
Blackburn and Ford are young, dynamic leaders from the state of Tennessee, well-positioned to offer the state of Tennessee a lot on the national level in the stead of two strong, but less…er…vibrant governors (Alexander and Bredesen). Kleinheider thinks the latter’s unsuccessful bid for Senate signifies Ford’s electability as governor, but I disagree; if Ford can position himself as a Bredesen follower with some kind of national standing above s non-Bill Frist candidate, he has at least a decent chance at winning. Ford’s stake here, of course, as he notes, is maintaining some kind of political presence above all else — in the same vein of a potential Sarah Palin Senate run — because his policies may have a far lesser stake in the Obama administration than he’d like.
Ford and Blackburn, y’all. Shoot Tennessee to pieces with the fireworks.
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