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Ford hopes DLC message appeals to Dems
Harold Ford Jr. said he wished that Democratic presidential candidates attended the centrist Democratic Leadership Council’s conference this morning in Nashville, but predicted they would embrace a platform similar to his organization’s to win the White House.
Ford said he “would have liked” the Democratic presidential candidates to attend the moderate DLC’s “National Conversation,” but understands that they have to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire and other early primary states.
“There are always tensions and frictions in any party,” Ford told reporters this morning. “Republicans are having it with their moderates and conservatives. And this year it’s evidencing itself in our own party.”
After Ford predicted in May that many, if not all, of the Democratic presidential candidates would attend the meeting, none of the presidential candidates decided to attend the DLC’s “National Conversation.”
Some commentators have said that’s because Democratic candidates are trying to appeal to anti-war liberals as opposed to the centrist DLC.
Former President Bill Clinton, the husband of candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), is addressing the conference this afternoon. Clinton chaired the DLC from 1990 to 1991.
Ford and the Democratic Leadership Council’s executive director, Al From, predicted, however, that to win the White House, the Democratic presidential candidates will move from the left to the center and the DLC’s agenda.
“The primaries are played on one end of the field,” From said. “In order to win the White House, you’ve got to play on both.”
Today, the DLC concludes its 11th annual “National Conversation” in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
Mayor Bill Purcell opened the conference and Gov. Phil Bredesen gave the keynote address in which he encouraged Democrats to run on ideas and not just against Republicans.
Bredesen noted that Tennessee has voted for the winning presidential candidate every election since 1960.
“If one of those presidential candidates who chose not to come here today can sell themselves in Tennessee, they can sell themselves in America,” Bredesen said.
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Yawn... is it over, yet? Snore zzzzzzzzzzzzz...
This should show the moderate democrats who has control of your party and what they think about you.Zell Miller,Ed Koch and Joe Liebermen are to far right for them and their agenda.
Good for the candidates to forsake the DLC and Al From -- whose undeserved influence has been a disaster the Democratic Party, as he is an out-of-touch corporate whore who has no concept of what the party does or ought to stand for. Harold Ford Jr. lost last year because he wasn't a whole lot better than the Republican he was opposing. Why vote for a me-too, surrender-on-principles-rather-than-risk-making-the-talk-radio-crazies-angry coward, talk-like-a-Republican opportunist when you can have the real thing. At least Corker is honest about who he is and what he stands for.I, for one, was delighted that Democrats re-took the U.S. Senate without having to elect an unpricipled hack like Jr. to do so. My vote for an independent candidate was one of the proudest of my life.Despite Republcian mythology to the contrary, neither of the last two presidential elections was won by an overwhelming landslide by GWB. In one, he got less votes than the Democrat. In both, just one state, decided by a narrow margin, amde the difference. While I know the dittohead morons thinks this means a huge majority permanently agrees with their paranoid neo-fascist view of the world, they are wrong. Go ahead and presume that prevailing attitudes and trends in Tennessee are just the same as the whole country. I suspect and grant you that the GOP candidate will once again win this state. But I also suspect that we will have another close election, teh democrat may very well win, and the eight Democratic candidates apparently understand that "Republican lite" -- the DLC way -- is exactly the wrong way to go.Harold Ford Jr., a sellout to the DLC and Fox News and corporate America, can continue to careen down the road to total irrelevance for all I care. He threw a party, and nobody came. And while, I suppose, he and the likes of Lincoln (bet-you-can't-tell-I'm-a-Democrat) Davis and Phil (boot-em-off-the insurance-rolls) Bredesen can hang on for a while by being total sell-outs, in the long term, they are destined for an undistiguished contribution to history.I hope we all understand this for what it is -- the beginning of the end of the DLC and its politics of surrender to the forces of the right.
lib keep talking like that and see how well your 20% of your wackos make out.
As a poster boy representative of a hopeless minority of whackos, you will merit all of us continuing to disregard your ravings, id. Try getting out of mommie's basement and getting a date, maybe you can get a view of the real world.
Most of the liberals understand that they can't run on what they really want to do because America is basically a conservative nation. The radicals can't see that and are furious with most of the Democrat candidates.
Well said, tennliberal, about the DLC and selling out. Trying to be republicans makes them look weak, imo. And yes, id should know about wackos.America is basically a MODERATE nation, not conservative or liberal. The majority of folks eschew either extreme. Moderation works best over the long haul, but there are always a few idealogues that come along and throw things off kilter.
Yeah, I think I'll go to the library and check out that book on great moderates of our time.Please! The worst politicians are those spineless half-hearts, Rs and Ds.Moderation is for the weak minded who can't figure out who or what they are.
id, if Zell Miller is a 'moderate Democrat', I'm Thomas Jefferson. Shrub, I agree with your second paragraph, but it contradicts your first one. Anyone who has been on here awhile knows what I think of right wing extremism and our corrupt, influence peddling excuse for a Pesident. But I disagree that pandering to left-wing interest groups will win the election. That, and a lowlife dirty campaign, is how W squeaked by in both elections- both sides played to their base and his base had more money and less ethics. The answer to most solutions lies in the middle and in the ability to compromise and reach consensus. Abraham Lincoln was a perfect example of that, juggling a cabinet full of enemies and finding solutions as the problems continually changed. W has been the opposite-his corporate backers gave him a 'to do' list, and he did as many of them as he could with blinders on, totally ignoring the fact that his Presidency was becoming a comlete disaster. We can also look to Tennessee and our current Governor, who took over from a corrupt hack and turned the state around through responsible management. Less waste. More money for schools. Keeping a no-income-tax pledge, but adding a user fee for nicotine addicts. Recruiting good jobs. Centrist positions that work.So it is a shame that none of the Dem candidates came to Tennessee, where any Republican except Fred is fair game for the Dems this time.
vchester, moderation is not about doing nothing, it is about getting things done. Lincoln, who is widely considered one of our best Presidents, could be classified as a 'moderate'. Also JFK, Clinton and Truman, who may not be on your list of greats but were all good leaders. The only arguably great leaders from the 'left' and 'right' in modern times are FDR and Reagan. Two conservative leaders, Nixon and W Bush, have been total disasters, although Nixon was at least competent.