{"id":1539,"date":"2010-01-26T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T16:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/01\/26\/baffled-by-harold-ford-jr\/"},"modified":"2010-01-26T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T16:20:00","slug":"baffled-by-harold-ford-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/01\/26\/baffled-by-harold-ford-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Baffled by Harold Ford Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m completely confused by Harold Ford Jr.’s quest to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in New York.<\/p>\n

The former lawmaker from Tennessee — with no ties in New York state — has been bashing Gillibrand for her ties to the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

And, even more weirdly, for her strong connection to Se4n. Chuck Schumer. <\/p>\n

I know that some downstate Dems dislike Gillibrand. They view her as too conservative, too Upstate.<\/p>\n

But Ford isn’t “state” at all. And many of his views, on abortion rights and same-sex marriage, are more conservative than Gillibrand’s.<\/p>\n

By dragging Schumer into this fight, it’s hard to see how Ford will win much support outside of a few disgruntled enclaves in the City.<\/p>\n

For the full knock-down drag-out, go to Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ll say again: A lot of politicians have underestimated Gillibrand at their own peril.<\/p>\n

When Ford describes her as “a parakeet,” it suggests that he hasn’t yet sorted out the lay of the land. <\/p>\n

It’s also worth noting that Gillibrand has followed almost exactly the same political path pioneered by former Senator Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

After her election, Clinton laid low for a full term, playing the good soldier and the party water-carrier.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that Gillibrand — who has yet to win an election in her own right as New York Senator — should be mavericking around in Washington is far-fetched.<\/p>\n

The bottom line? All the squabbling is mildly entertaining. But I’ve yet to see how this primary race turns into much of a race at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m completely confused by Harold Ford Jr.’s quest to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}