Harold Ford's Op-Ed in the New York Times is a classic example of what happens when megalomania gets completely out of control. His cowardice and self-aggrandizing bullshit is exactly why he has no place in New York politics.
He blames the party bosses for not immediately getting behind him. He blames Kristen Gillibrand. He blames women and the LGBT community. He blames everyone but himself, naturally.
But here are the real reasons Ford, who likes to say he wont be intimidated, was indeed intimidated:
1. Harold Ford has no Democratic base.
He doesn't have a regional base, as Gillibrand does upstate. He doesn't have an ethnic base, since he isn't from here and New York black voters don't trust him. He doesn't have an ideological base, since he doesn't believe in anything. He doesn't have a constituency, since he's never been elected to anything in New York nor is he a national name like Clinton or Kennedy. Nor is he a strong union man. There was basically nobody Harold Ford could count on as his shock troops.
2. Ford screwed up his own rollout.
Ford's disastrous interview with the New York Times illustrated how completely out of touch he is with everyday New Yorkers. The rarefied air he breathes everyday in no endeared him to New Yorkers on the ground. He may have earned to backslaps and head patting on Wall Street and in the media towers of Midtown Manhattan, but in the end, the first impression of Harold Ford by regular New Yorkers was of a Patrick Bateman from the movie American Psycho. Then came the brutal beating he took on the Colbert Show. Then came the tax story. Then came the bonus question. It was a cascade of FAIL.
3. Ford never gained any traction in the polls.
Despite having the major New York media establishment carrying water for him, Harold Ford started at 24% and just recently came in at 16%. He conducted his own internal poll after two months of "campaigning" and while we don't know the results, they couldn't have been encouraging. The fact is, despite all his high profile visits, nobody was responding to anything he said.
4. Ford would have trouble getting on the ballot.
Ford thought he could win over the necessary 25% of county party endorsements to get on the ballot automatically, but Gillibrand outfoxed him on this front. This would have forced him to gather 15,000 signatures by petition and those petitions have to be from across the state. It's a cumbersome process he would have had to pay for out of his own money.
5. Gillibrand got tough with him.
While Gillibrand largely remained silent about other potential state Democrats challenging her (she's even kept quiet about Tasini) she took on Ford with combative relish. Everyday her media staff was hammering him calling him Harold Ford, Jr. (I-Merrill Lynch) on their press releases. She reminded New Yorkers every single day that he was a wall street executive. She hammered hard over weather he took a Wall Street taxpayer funded bonus, which we all know he did. She never let up on him and was not nice on the way out as she proclaimed triumph over his dumb ass.
6. Ford's operation was a disaster.
Just on the day to day work of running even a prospective campaign, this was complete fail. Ford didn't go upstate and do local talk shows or sit down for local interviews like Hillary Clinton did. Instead, he went to go shake hands with the very Democratic party bosses he was trashing. How do you say "im against the establishment" and then go around the state meeting with party leaders and mayors? Ridiculous. When hit by the tax evasion question, he fumbled. He looked like a deer in the headlights when hit with questions about his bonus. And instead of working unions, which are THE FUNDAMENTAL FACTOR in Democratic primaries, he ignored them or met a brick wall of rejection. Finally, he didn't work up the black community which one would think would be the place he would begin. In all of February...Black History Month, mind you, he attended one event in Long Island. Even that event was an invitation from a group of Nassau County REPUBLICANS! LOL. His whole operation was amateurish, unsophisticated, and pathetic.
7. Ford isn't from here and he's a loser.
While New York has always been the kind of place that welcomes newcomers from anywhere in the world, it is STILL a very provincial place. New Yorkers are VERY VERY protective of New York. If you're gonna come here, you'd better bring something to the table. Robert Kennedy was the Attorney-General of the United States when he ran. That's a lot of juice. Hillary Clinton was First Lady of the United States when she ran. That's a lot of juice. New Yorkers can see the bargain...we get a big name down in Washington, we get more stuff. Harold Ford is just some guy from dwon South who lost a Senate seat, his own Congressional seat, and a campaign to become Speaker of the House. He came in a loser. Sorry, Harold. You can't be not from here AND a loser. You can be one or the other, but not both.
8. Ford's positions were out of step with New York Democrats.
Ford got opposition right from the start, especially from the LGBT and Women's community. He tried as he might to convince people that the truth was that he was one of them, but the YouTube from 2006 tells a completely different story. When you start out with this much opposition on the issues, you're a weak swimmer in deep water. That cut taxes/hail Jesus stuff may play down in the hills, but up here we prefer our Democrats pro-government and tolerant.
9. Ford isn't as smart as he thinks he is.
Name one single innovative proposal Harold Ford has stood for. You can't, because he doesn't have any. Without being able to run on any particular thing, he was simply offering up himself as a better person. That can be a successful rationale for a campaign when the incumbent is despised by the electorate. That isn't the case here. Without having any serious rationale for his run, he made it all about himself...which I'm sure fits his mien. Ford needs to study up and distinguish himself on SOMETHING other than rather conventional, humdrum, Washington groupthink punditry.
10. The risks were too great.
The decision matrix points toward not running. If Ford ran and lost, he's finished for good. Both in New York and anywhere else. Getting beat in two different states is feat few politicians can put on their resume. If Ford ran and won, he'd be a weak candidate sure to invite in a number of strong Republican challengers, since he would not be the incumbent in a state where nobody knows who he is or who invited him. That's the best thing Gillibrand has going for her is that she's the incumbent and has a platform. So when Ford began to see the writing on the wall, it made it clear that if he ballsed up and went for and failed, he'd be finished in politics for good. If he banked his now expanded rolodex and bide his time, maybe he will have another chance in the future.
Those are the real reasons Ford had to give it up. I'd like to see anybody make a strong case on how he could have won.