Oh Harold

I generally don't write political agenda blogs, but I can't help but write about this.

Anyone known a flip flopper? John Kerry comes to mind, but I think I've found one who's mastered it.

Harold Ford Jr.

Yep, the former congressman from Memphis is making it an art form. He comes from a long line of corrupt and sleazy family members that have graced Memphis in politics for a long time. Many people were hoping when he ran for Congress here in Memphis a few years back that he would change the image of his family. Unfortunately for him and Memphis, that didn't happen.

He also ran for Senate in Tennessee a few years back and lost. Up until now the biggest issues that Ford Jr. ran into was his lack of job history, him pissing off his own party, and taking under the table trips.

When he lost his run for Senate in the largely conservative state of Tennessee, he relocated to New York City and took a job teaching for NYU. Additionally he is a Vice President at Bank of America, bringing in around a million dollars a year, and is a political adviser for NBC's morning show "Today." But that hasn't stopped him from trying to run for senate in the state of New York, which is the real reason he moved there in the first place. The problem? His conservative views (for a democrat) doesn't match up with the very liberal views that it takes to win the senate seat in NY. So he did what many "carpetbaggers" like Hillary Clinton did before him...he changed his views.

He has changed his positions on same sex marriages and civil unions as well as changed his wording on abortion. When running for senate in Tennessee, he said he was pro-life. Now that he's running in NYC, he's changed his wording slightly from "life" to "choice." Not a big deal if you're a politician.

It has been interesting, to say the least, to see him get grilled in the media.
NY Times Article. I loved this stuff....

"Mr. Ford, 39, expressed enthusiasm about his new hometown, though he described a life quite different than most New Yorkers. On many days, he is driven to an NBC television studio in a chauffeured car. He and his wife, Emily, a 29-year-old fashion executive, live a few blocks from the Lexington Avenue subway line in the Flatiron district. But Mr. Ford said he takes the subway only occasionally in the winter, to avoid the cold when he cannot hail a cab.

Asked whether he had visited all five boroughs, he mentioned taking a helicopter ride across the city with fellow executives, at the invitation of Raymond W. Kelly, New York City’s police commissioner. “The only place I have not spent considerable time is Staten Island,” he said, adding that “I landed there in the helicopter, so I can say yes.

Mr. Ford declined to discuss what he is paid by the bank, but publicly available data suggests that he earns at least $1 million a year. Asked what role outsize pay packages played in fueling the financial crisis, Mr. Ford said he objected to capping executive compensation on Wall Street. “I am a capitalist,” he said. “I believe that people take risk, and there are rewards if they do well; they should lose if they don’t.

But what is likely to gain the most immediate attention is his record on issues, which Ms. Gillibrand’s defenders say is too conservative for New York"

Continue reading the NY Times article for more fun and to see all the areas he flip flops.

Here is another article from the Memphis Commercial Appeal where they take him to task.

This one isn't what I would consider the media, but it is pretty funny nonetheless.
(If you can't see this video on Facebook, check it out on my blog www.mrmcgoo.blogspot.com)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Harold Ford Jr.
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

If anyone can't see what is going on here, let me spell it out for you what is going on. He's lining up his run for the Presidency in the soon future. Sounds like a noble guy eh?