Not a good idea from Junior. He looked and sounded desperate. I would expect Corker bloggers will use this. Why would he breach campaign etiquette when he is ahead? This makes me wonder if the Zogby/WSJ poll was correct.

I thought Corker was going to use the, "I paid for this microphone" bit from Ronald Reagan. Corker handled the situation better than Harold Ford. I guess it is time to go to Volunteer Voters to get the play by play.

Corker has put this race in the gutter. Attack ads about the Ford family. Strippers on TV saying, "Call me, Harold".

I dont blame Harold for going there wanting to talk issues with Corker.

My guess is that Ford is playing the height card. Face to face, no matched-height lectern steps.

This may backfire, but at least it makes for good conversation.

It does put Corker off message and changes the headlines for the day. It was also uneventful enough to be gone by tomorrow. If people miss the newscasts at 6pm (which is typical on fridays) they may never know this happened.

Saw the news clip and it was great. Corkey backed down and ran as soon as Ford tried to start discussing issues. "This is my press conference." Ha, much like these are my toys and you can't play. If he was serious about winning over the voters he would sit and spar, debate. Truth is he has run from Ford everytime they have asked to debate. Corker refuse to talk about the issues because he is obsessed with the Ford family rather than his opponent. Is this hidden envy?

Fact is that Corker has no platform to run on and has no ideas so he is trying to scare the public and smear his opponnet. This was a great move on Fords part because it took Corker off his message while showing the public that he isn't man enough to take on his opponnet mano y mano. Corker looked like the smaller man in more ways than one.

It was a political catch 22 for Corker, Get out and look a fool or stay inside and be a coward. Great move Ford Camp!

I love the press release saying the Ford Crashed the press conference. What a cry baby. DEBATE THE MAN! Give us some issues to judge you on!!!! If Corker wanted to deliver the Ford camp a devistating blow he would have stood his ground and debated! It would have made news rotations state wide the entire weekend. Instead he turned and ran away with his tail between his legs. Don't complain when you lose this race. Ford gave you every opportunity to show the public what you got and what your're about and you failed to seize the moment every time.

It's hard for me to see how this is a loser for Ford.  He didn't actually butt in and interupt Corker talking to reporters (at least as far as I can tell from the video); he just got himself some nifty footage with Corker and tied Iraq tighter around Corker's neck.

And somehow "this is my press conference" sounded a lot more petulant than "I paid for the microphone."  It's all in the delivery.

I see I am in the minority with my perception of this event. AC sums it up the same way I see it. Big mistake. What Ford did is show that the "ethics" scam issue is kryptonite to him. Corker has found a way to bring Ford's family into the debate and it is cloaked in acceptability. Expect Corker to be all "ethics" all the time.

Ford's body language could not have been worse. This was not a "senatorial" move. His half apology showed uncertainty. I call this move by Ford "reverse punked". How bad will the fallout be? If it cost Ford 2% it could be fatal.

Any bets on whether Ingram will use outtakes of this in upcoming ads?

Pretty smart move by Ford if you ask me. Ford won the parking lot face off hands down. When Corker chose to cut and run, Ford looked pretty good.

My only criticism would be that maybe Ford should have just gone back on message instead of trying to defend/deflect questions about being there in the first place. At least he kept telling the reporters to please, go on in and cover the press conference.

As for showing up there, this was a good example of why Ford is doing so well. He shows up. Which is about 90% of success.

sorry folks, but in my estimation, the ambush on Corkers news conference didn't look that hot. At least not by this one and only news release I watched.

And I doubt it did much for those on the fence, and that's the main audience you'r usually after, or at least careful not to alienate.

comments like "not senatorial" rung true and sounded really bad to me.

It seemed poorly planned and scripted, even somewhat desperate at times. (So Corker is shorter... this wasn't necessarily the best set dressing for the choreography.)

In the news story, it looked bad from the point he is being asked to leave private property. (Pushy politicians, playing by their own rules.) He looked like he was in a foreign country (arriving by bus no less,) rather than appearing to be at his strong homebase in the big M.

Figuring a better ambush shouldn't have been that hard.
Was Corker just flying in and out? Still better to have picked a better time and place.

... Ford starts in with a hurried paced question about Iraq, then jumps right to the complaint about the family thing - like he was unprepared or off balance. "I thought you agreed after the first debate.. " whatever. argumentative and too late. Came off more like an aggressive reporter (not a universally loved figure outside blog circles like this.)

The "defense of family" would have been a good card to play to justify an ambush, but he didn't pull it off here. After leading with the Iraq thing, he lost that strong clarity of purpose in crashing the event.

Had he presented the family thing and stood his ground **demanding a retraction of some kind within the first moments** he might have held the ground to force Corker to continue the exchange - or walk off looking the coward - all for the camera to clearly show.

This would have provided an opportunity to allow Jr to look strong had he played it right, but I say it's played out now.

I hope he finds another opportunity to defended his family effectively in debate or interview, but I don't think it's that strong an issue with the voter. (I think it has more to do with his personal honor - and he should let it go in the context of this race. I hear he is still talking about it.) Spending too much capital worrying about defending negatives seems unproductive. He's so dynamic when going positive with his variety of ideas and strong messages.

Corker looked predictably dull, and the clip from the actual news conference reinforced that, with his easily forgettable whatever he said... maybe Ford should have saved this ambush and found better effect by staging his own news conference - with a more exciting message to play on the news that evening.

You're right, no talk on the press conference, but no real positives about Ford either, Patterson helped Corker look good and tv today, nice love fest. Stacey