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Memphis Paper Endorses Harold Ford Jr.    [

    McCaskill for Missouri
    The St. Louis Post Dispatch | Editorial

    Sunday 22 October 2006

    "It says something about Missouri," Jim Talent was saying last week, "that after this much time, with two first-tier candidates, with this much money and national attention and with these kind of differences on the issues, that it's still so close."

    Indeed it does. Missouri, which has been a bellwether state in 25 of the last 26 presidential elections, now reflects the deeply divided political mood of the country in this off-year election. Mr. Talent, 50, a Republican from Chesterfield who is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, has found that out the hard way. With all the advantages of incumbency, including $21.4 million in campaign donations, he finds himself in a dead heat with Democratic state Auditor Claire McCaskill with the election two weeks away.

    It no doubt comes as a surprise to the 53-year-old Ms. McCaskill as well. In an interview 19 months ago, still nursing bruises from her unsuccessful 2004 gubernatorial race against the 33-year-old Republican Matt Blunt, Ms. McCaskill had been ambivalent about the prospect of challenging Mr. Talent.

    Party leaders wanted her to make the run, she said, but Mr. Talent would have all the money he needed, and she was sick of asking people for money, particularly in a race she wasn't sure she could win. Another defeat would end her political career, she said.

    Things changed. The war in Iraq continued to claim American lives and treasure. Hurricane Katrina raised profound questions about the competence of the Bush administration. Gasoline prices spiked. The national economy, driven by tax cuts passed by the Republican Congress, benefited mainly the wealthy. Mr. Talent, a hard-core supporter of President George W. Bush (and the president, likewise, for him), was caught in the downdraft when the president's poll numbers began to drop.

    Back home, Mr. Blunt and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed Draconian cuts to the state's Medicaid program. Initiative drives got controversial issues including stem cell research, the minimum wage and a tobacco tax increase on the November ballot. Republican legislators passed a voter identification bill that might have held down Democratic turnout, but the courts threw it out.

    Suddenly it was a horse race featuring two familiar horses. Mr. Talent, a lawyer, served four terms in the state Legislature and four terms in Congress and has run two previous statewide races: an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2000 and his successful race against Sen. Jean Carnahan in 2002. Ms. McCaskill, of Kirkwood, a lawyer, state legislator and two-term Jackson County prosecutor, has run statewide three previous times, twice for auditor and once for governor.

    Their political positions are familiar - and poles apart. James Matthes Talent is an affable, fervent, ideological conservative and a low-key, fervent, evangelical Christian. As a freshman senator, he sought bipartisan solutions on issues like biofuels, national infrastructure funding and small business health care. From a junior seat on the Armed Services Commitee, he supported a larger Army and became a strong advocate for the Navy. He strongly supports President Bush's "terrorist surveillance" program, including the president's claim to broad executive war powers.

    Ms. McCaskill, a pro-choice Catholic, is a populist Democrat who supports the death penalty and who thinks the race in outstate Missouri should be "less about the NRA and more about access to health care." She criticizes the decision to invade Iraq and wants to establish "benchmarks" for U.S. troop withdrawal. She favors toughened security of U.S. borders and cracking down on employers who hire undocumented aliens. She favors increasing the federal minimum wage and changing the tax code to favor the middle class. She promises to take auditors from her office in Jefferson City to Washington to pore over Government Accountablity Office reports on government waste.

    Ambitious, blunt-spoken and confrontational her entire career, she says anyone who thinks Missouri should be a "blue-state echo chamber" misreads the state.

    The policy differences between the two candidates have been sharply revealed in a series of debates. The basic decency of both individuals has been shamefully distorted by their media campaigns. The choice, however, is clear.

    For her independence, her attitude and her grasp of the real problems faced by today's Missouri and today's America, Claire McCaskill should be Missouri's next United States senator.

 

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    Editorial For the Senate: Harold Ford Jr.
    Memphis Commercial Appeal | Editorial

    Sunday 22 October 2006

    It isn't easy to articulate the point of a political campaign more succinctly than Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has in his quest for Tennessee's soon-to-be-vacant seat in the United States Senate.

    Voters who are pleased with the course that President Bush and a compliant Congress have followed domestically and on the international front should feel comfortable with the Republican nominee, former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker.

    Voters who prefer a change in direction, who believe that America can do better, should cast their ballots Nov. 7 for the five-term Democratic congressman from Memphis. For this reason and others, The Commercial Appeal strongly recommends REP. HAROLD FORD JR. for the U.S. Senate.

    Ford has made serious work of preparing himself to represent citizens throughout Tennessee and to challenge the Bush administration, which has accumulated a mountain of debt for future generations to retire and failed to make discernible progress in more than three years of fighting a war that was justified on misleading information about the perceived threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

    Ford has the potential to become a leader in the Senate, if Tennessee voters will look beyond the superficial aspects of this year's race to replace outgoing Sen. Bill Frist and base their decision on substantive issues.

    In the closing days of this extravagantly financed race, there will be efforts to distract voters from those issues. Because of growing national interest in this too-close-to-call contest, groups like the Free Enterprise Fund have gotten involved, criticizing Ford's campaign expenditures in an attack funded in part by a sponsor of the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which distorted John Kerry's military record in Vietnam in 2004.

    Ford's personal style, prickly and combative at times, is a handicap that he will have to overcome to realize his full potential. But he clearly articulates a vision for the future of the United States and the state of Tennessee that encompasses energy independence, new, energy-related markets for the state's farmers, a more vigorous commitment to health care and education and a balanced budget.

    His independence from Democratic Party orthodoxy is demonstrated by a voting record and positions he has taken - on issues ranging from bankruptcy law to the Patriot Act to gay rights - that have infuriated liberals in the Ninth Congressional District and beyond.

    Ford's aim is to become part of a new majority in the Senate that will attempt to restore competency in government and a recommitment to America's core values.

    Tennesseans who share that goal have in Ford a candidate who has demonstrated competence and integrity through a solid 10 years of service to his constituents and his country.

    In Corker, too, Tennesseans would be honorably represented in the Senate. Intelligent and well qualified, he has demonstrated competence and a sense of purpose in a successful career in business and public service.

    In his hometown of Chattanooga, he founded Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, a successful low-income housing initiative, and, as mayor, he took charge of a praiseworthy riverfront redevelopment effort. In a brief stint as state Commissioner of Finance and Administration, he helped reform the state's welfare program.

    Corker, however, lacks Ford's grasp of the issues that will confront the 110th Congress. With one foot in Washington, where Ford learned the legislative process and the finer points of policy from close observation, and one in Memphis, where he is a familiar figure, Ford has acquired encyclopedic knowledge of issues ranging from health care to national defense to the challenges of educating children in a large, economically disadvantaged school district.

    Operating in the shadow of a family that tends to grab the headlines, Ford has succeeded in establishing his own identity and steered clear of the kinds of conflicts that have made some family members a liability in his campaigns.

    Like the father who preceded him in the Ninth District seat, he has delivered federal help on the constituent needs of individuals, local governments and local industry.

    At the same time, he has prepared meticulously for a transition to statewide representation, traveling frequently in Tennessee's three grand divisions to gain a thorough understanding of the state's diverse citizenry and culture.

    Foremost, it is Ford, more than Corker, who is in a position to challenge the status quo in Washington. He can help put the country back on a path that will enhance its economic health, meet the needs of its citizens and build respect for America abroad.

    A Ford victory, in other words, would give Tennesseans a chance to make a difference in the country and the world.

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