Any Dem running statewide in TN is going to have a hell of a time, no matter what. You need to have killer turnout in Nashville and Memphis, and do as well as you can in Knox, Chatt, and the Tri-Cities, maybe Jackson.

Problem is, you've got activist Dems in Memphis and Nashville who respond to different issues than do rural voters. Playing only to the rural areas could depress your turnout in Shelby and Davidson, two reliable Dem vote hotbeds. The GOP has no such problem, since their high-margin areas are Williamson and Blount, and east TN proper. None of these are urban areas, and you see them getting away with progressively rightward-leaning social policies.

Going to be interesting to see how Bredesen threads this needle, since he's pretty well thrown the Democratic Party identifier under the bus and given up on Memphis/Nashville, since presumably he thinks he'll attract a lot of GOP support elsewhere. Regardless of the devastating effect this will have on other Democrats who'd like to identify as such, it seems like a risky strategy - there are many Republicans who'll vote GOP on principle. He better hope Corker can't manage to rile up his base, and that money doesn't start getting funneled in here from the Frist organization.

If Ford's smart, he'll be doing a lot of behind-the-scenes coordinating to finesse his message. I'm starting to think he can pull this out if he can patch together some of the smaller counties in mid and West, which still reliably vote Dem.

Notice how the GOP talking points are starting to write off Iraq and agitating for new, exciting fronts in the war on terror.

Notice, too, that while many in the administration are itching to push onward into Iran (Wes Clark even saying that Iran has been on the radar since before the Iraq invasion), they're desperately trying to avoid the issue of the larger war in the Middle East and the US role there.

New products in August & all that.

Still, the crisis in Lebanon gives ample opportunity to look away from the ongoing disaster elsewhere in the region.

Anyway, I don't expect that Ford will turn into Dennis Kucinich. Neither will the rest of the Democratic Party, for that matter. Ford is Ford, Lieberman is Lieberman, and Tennessee ain't Connecticut. As I read the lessons from recent events here at home, we're seeing that Tennesseeans respect moderation from both sides of the aisle. They reject Hilleary just as much as they would reject Hillary, and although Bryant tried desperately to cast himself as [William Jennings] Bryan, it didn't fly.

____________________________

"winkin' at my peers," quotin' Thurston.

Good to hear someone else wouldn't vote for McCain.  I'm so tired of hearing people say they'd vote for him because he's so darn likable.  I might like him too, as they say Joe is also "likable," but vote?  Hell, NO! (To paraphrase Ted Stevens.)  Well, I suppose there's some strategic vote where I could hypothetically check his box.  After all, I do vote GOP in the primaries...  

The local press is already trying to box Ford into a corner on this. Earlier today, in an interview with the Tennessean, they were comparing Lieberman to Ford's brother Jake:

(link...)

He claims to be trying to stay out of it, but says both Lieberman and his brother "are Democrats."

Disappointing, but not surprising...blood was, last I checked, still thicker than water.