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The outsiders

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Harold Ford’s definition of “outsider” differs from mine:

Mayor Stephanie Miner won running as an outsider, enjoying the support of Senator Schumer.

On what planet can you be an outsider while being backed by Chuck Schumer? I suppose this is the same way that Terry McAulife ran as an outsider in the Virginia Democratic primary. Nothing against Mayor Miner, but come on.

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71Comments

  3. 3.

    Lev

    It seems simple enough to me.

    You are an outsider if you are not the incumbent.

    You are an outsider if you used to be in office, before becoming a lobbyist (or, in Ford’s case, a banker), but are currently not in office.

    If you are an incumbent officeholder but are only a freshman or sophomore, you get to be an outsider too.

    Or, you get to be an outsider if you talk funny (let’s call this the W Lemma) or are extremely charismatic (the Obama postulate).

    To be perfectly honest, I never vote for anyone based on whether they’re an “outsider” or not. Hell, the only real outsider who amounted to anything in politics in my lifetime was Ross Perot. But the public’s continued desperation for a candidate that has even a whiff of not being a Washington type says quite a bit about our politics.

  5. 5.

    Amy

    Wasn’t the mayor on the city council of Syracuse for a long time? Oh yeah, big outsider. Just ask Chuck.

    By the way, was this a Harold Ford suck-up to Schumer?

  6. 6.

    DougJ

    I apology for my Harold Ford obsession. I find the idea of him being my Senator very disturbing.

  9. 9.

    Amy

    BTW, why would the city of Syracuse pay for students to go to Carnegie Mellon which isn’t even in the same state as Syracuse? I think Ford has a leetle problem with, um, geography. It’s probably the first time he’s been to central NY but maybe he could have figured out that Pittsburgh isn’t exactly close by.

  12. 12.

    gbear

    @DougJ:

    DougJ, did you see this over at Wonkette. Should be quite a debate (comedy gold) if it’s true.

    Tomorrow night, [Harold Ford Jr.]’s due to square off against Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock – a political death match entitled, ‘Left, Right, and Forward: On the Future of America.

  14. 14.

    Mark S.

    OT, but dear god:

    Tebow’s decision to appear in this ad should be considered just as courageous as Muhammad Ali’s decision to not enter the draft, or Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ black power salute at the 1968 summer Olympics.

    I hope Tbogg doesn’t see this.

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    @gbear:

    Awesome!

    Thanks.

    There’s a racial angle that I find slightly troubling. Having a black president doesn’t change as much as one would hope.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    I seem to remember when George W. Bush, son of a former President, grandson of a Senator & New York Banker, cheerleader at a New England prep school, Yale graduate, was considered the true representative of the outsider Southern / Texan workin’ man rebel.

  18. 18.

    parksideq

    @gbear: My FSM, who will take the position furthest to the right in that debate? I’m only half-kidding as I ask that.

    I know I’m only one man, but this black New Yorker will vote for Giuliani for Senate before Harold Ford. At least Giuliani’s a principled douchebag (say what you want about his naked self-promotion, Dude, but at least it’s an ethos); Ford doesn’t even have that going for him.

    ETA: For the record, Ford’s got no chance in hell. I’ll gladly be voting for Gillebrand once the dust settles on this whole thing.

  19. 19.

    Ash Can

    a political death match entitled, ‘Left, Right, and Forward: On the Future of America.

    So much stupid, so little patience…

  22. 22.

    eemom

    @DougJ:

    it’s understandable. Hell, I haven’t lived in NY since 1985 and I’m appalled too.

    Srsly, he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Tennessee though, right?

  23. 23.

    Rick Massimo

    You don’t have to BE an outsider; you just have to RUN AS one. You just have to SAY you are.

    In Harold Ford’s world, anyway. That’s the world where you don’t actually win elections, but – you know, details.

  24. 24.

    parksideq

    @DougJ: Slightly OT, but do you think Cuomo’s gonna officially throw his hat into the ring for governor anytime soon? Paterson is a dead man walking if he has to represent the Dems in the gubernatorial general.

  25. 25.

    Warren Terra

    Ford is debating Michael Steele

    Great, two embarrassingly tone-deaf moderate Republicans debating each other. The only remotely interesting question is whether Ford will try to sound like a Democrat.

  26. 26.

    Lev

    @gbear: Genius! Michael Steele has found the only figure in public life that he can crucify in a debate aside from Palin (but he can’t very well do that to her).

    Here’s what I don’t get. Michael Steele is “the right”, but who’s representing “the left”? Is Rangel going to show up? Not my favorite liberal, but Harold Ford makes him look like a combination of Jesus and FDR.

    Oh, yeah, and I’ve figured out who Harold Ford is. He’s the black George W. Bush. Think about it. Not too bright, bad with words, not charismatic, weak, manipulated by powerful people (Rove and Cheney for Dubya, Bloomberg for Ford). Unfortunately, Ford’s act doesn’t play quite so well among Democrats. Had he decided to be a Republican, he probably would have been president by now.

  27. 27.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Mark S.:

    Tebow’s decision to appear in this ad should be considered just as courageous as Muhammad Ali’s decision to not enter the draft, or Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ black power salute at the 1968 summer Olympics.

    Jamele Hill has long been on the road to becoming an elite Fucking Moron.

  29. 29.

    Warren Terra

    @parksideq:

    ETA: For the record, Ford’s got no chance in hell. I’ll gladly be voting for Gillebrand once the dust settles on this whole thing.

    It is incredible how Ford has managed to make Gillibrand popular.

    Although, it was pretty incredible to read yesterday’s New York Times article about how all these fat-cat big donors are finding themselves conflicted with their desires to support Gillibrand or Ford, as if supporting Ford made any sense at all. I just wish they were resorting to backing Ford because they fear Gillibrand’s populism, when the sad truth is just that they’re certain Gillibrand will serve their interests effectively but they also know that Ford thinks he’s one of them and will serve their interests with a positively distasteful fervency.

  30. 30.

    Lev

    @DougJ: But here’s the real question: after Harry Reid loses re-election to a second-string Repub, is Schumer going to become Majority Leader? I do feel a little sorry for Harry (just a little), but he really should have stepped down at the beginning of 2009 and said that he needed to focus on his tough re-election campaign. Then everybody would have won!

  31. 31.

    eemom

    @C Nelson Reilly:

    I don’t like McAuliffe either, but perhaps he could have beaten McDonnell. If for no other reason than that a lot of McDonnell’s voters would be incapable of mastering the difference between those two names.

  32. 32.

    DougJ

    But here’s the real question: after Harry Reid loses re-election to a second-string Repub, is Schumer going to become Majority Leader?

    I hope so!

  34. 34.

    Warren Terra

    @Lev:

    Had he decided to be a Republican, he probably would have been president by now.

    No, they’d never have nominated a black guy, no matter how servile. Colin Powell knew the score there. But if Ford said “Jesus” enough, he might have been the Republican Vice President, or at least their nominee.

  36. 36.

    gbear

    @Warren Terra:

    The only remotely interesting question is whether Ford will try to sound like a Democrat.

    Isn’t he, for the sake of his campaign, going to have to try to sound like a New York democrat? ..while in Arkansas? What a stupid place to put himself.

  37. 37.

    Martin

    @Warren Terra: It takes more than just saying ‘Jesus’. I think you have to add in starbursts, a Downs-syndrome kid, and pictures of yourself with a moose, if history is any guide.

  39. 39.

    Lev

    It’s true that talking like a Republican isn’t just about tossing in a bunch of Jesus stuff. In reality, it’s more about tapping into all that paranoia and anxiety and alienation to try to get people to think that you’re their only ally against a cruel, malicious world.

    Wow, I just realized that pretty much the entire conservative worldview is indistinguishable from a Morrissey song. Which is one thing when you’re 17, but another when you’re a teabagger.

  42. 42.

    PurpleGirl

    He’s been to Syracuse twice in how many weeks? He’s been living in NYC for three years… is this the first time he’s travelled outside the city? And we know he feels he knows the City because he took a helicopter tour with the police commissioner. Phony git.

    Yeah, you’re right, if you have Schumer supporting you, you ain’t no outside.

  45. 45.

    El Cid

    @Lev: It’s just the thing you’re supposed to shout about, I though. Also, STOP CALLING FOR BASEBALL PLAYERS TO RAPE THAT UNDERAGE PALIN DAUGHTER!

  49. 49.

    Elie

    @Lev:

    If you live in a rural or small town area, outsider has a much more negative connotation and makes it really hard to contribute to the political or social discussion.

    Many of these areas are under a lot of social, economic and cultural stress and the people don’t know who to blame. The outsiders seem logical ( the people who move in with new development or economic booms), because everything was “good” like the good ol days before they came. Sad truth is also that the old timers like some of the bad things from the good ol days too — the overdevelopment, the deferring to the good ol boys who have money and the old hegemony (they gave out all the old jobs, etc). They did not want that changed and are pissed off that these outsiders demand accountability and transparency where so and so could just bail out your son who got into a little scrape without making a big to do about it…

    Not to make too much of a point. I think Ford is trying to use “outsider” as a positive, a certain cache as “unbeholding” to the status quo. But it has other meanings and can be used very negatively in communities where change carries a great deal of ambivalence.

  50. 50.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Harold Ford is only 39. If he plays his cards right, he can run as a so-called Democrat from every state in the Union.

  53. 53.

    Elie

    I havent seen the General around here in the last few days but then, it could just be me missing him when I come in..

  55. 55.

    Sly

    @Lev:

    But here’s the real question: after Harry Reid loses re-election to a second-string Repub, is Schumer going to become Majority Leader?

    It’s Durbin unless he doesn’t want it. Whips generally are the favored candidate to take over leadership spots.

    LBJ was the Whip while McFarland was Leader. When LBJ rose to Leader, Mike Mansfield became the Whip. When Johnson became President, Mansfield became leader and Byrd became whip. When Mansfield retired, Byrd became leader and Cranston became whip. Cranston got hooked into the Keating Five so George Mitchell got the spot and Wendell Potter became whip. Wendell Potter turned the Minority Leader spot down, Daschle took it, and Reid was made Whip. And when Daschle got voted out, Reid became Minority Leader and Durbin became Whip.

    If Durbin turns it down, Schumer would probably be it. Typically the people who run campaign committees have been relegated to the back rooms, but today they’re pretty all-encompassing, and Schumer’s been running the DSCC like a fuckin’ boss.

  56. 56.

    Sly

    @DougJ:

    I apology for my Harold Ford obsession. I find the idea of him being my Senator very disturbing.

    Realize it’ll never happen, then you can appreciate it for the comedic tour de force that it is.

    Forget it, DougJ, it’s Syracuse.

    Cue music, roll credits.

  57. 57.

    parksideq

    @Warren Terra: To be honest, I never really understood why so many people -in the progosphere, anyway – downed the haterade when it came to Gillebrand. I live in Brooklyn now, but I used to live in her old district in Poughkeepsie. I understood why she was a moderate then, and figured that as a Senator she’d move left to reflect her new state-wide constituency. Which is exactly what happened.

    Hell, she was one of maybe 7 senators to vote against that stupid bill of attainder that de-funded ACORN. As far as I can see, she’s done a damn good job in her short time in the Senate, and I never got why she got so much shit from people for voting moderate when she was representing a center-right district at the time.

  59. 59.

    Ellie

    @akadad #41 lol – I’m sure you are teh hott.

    eemom, I think you may be right about McA vs McD. I voted for Deeds and was glad that McAuliffe lost the primary at the time. However, after watching the “campaign” waged by Deeds, I think McAuliffe would have at least made it closer, if not won. What a bust that campaign was. Sure, we’d have Terry as the guv, but would it be worse? No, I think not.

    Well, we survived George Allen and, FSM help us, Jim friggin Gilmore. This too shall pass.

  62. 62.

    dp

    @Amy: Yup Mayor Miner was a long-time fixture on the Syracuse Common Counsel. Her somewhat abrasive personality didn’t win her any friends, but she was the only councilor not to vote to pour massive amounts of tax dollars into a giant mall development on which construction has ceased halfway through the project. She benefited by running against a political neophyte who was outspent and out-campaigned by her. Outsider, nope, the Democratic establishment backed her wholeheartedly. Does Harold Ford even know where Syracuse is/

  64. 64.

    bayville

    I learned that Senator Gillibrand hasn’t spent much time in Syracuse since being appointed Senator last year. It was reported this morning in the local newspaper that Senator Gillibrand has been to central New York only twice since she’s been Senator. I’ve been once in the past 2 weeks since starting my tour across New York.

    (emphasis added)

    Is it still a mystery why this guy lost to a nobody like Bob Corker during the Democratic tidal wave of 2006?

  67. 67.

    Thoughtcrime

    But what outsider is Milo Minderbinder backing? Maj. Major Major Major?

    What’s good for M & M Enterprises will be good for the country.

  69. 69.

    Tax Analyst

    Tomorrow night, [Harold Ford Jr.]’s due to square off against Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock – a political death match entitled, ‘Left, Right, and Forward: On the Future of America.

    I’ve got $5 says the podium comes out of this duel looking smarter than both of them.

  70. 70.

    burnspbesq

    @Mark S.:

    The funniest part of that piece was “as [Tebow] transitions into professional football.”

    Based on his Senior Bowl performance, there is no reason to believe that Tebow will be drafted in the first three rounds. If he doesn’t perform extremely well at the scouting combine, there may not be any transition into professional football, except possibly a transition that involves the CFL.

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