NASHVILLE, Tenn.—For the Democrats to seize the Senate, they have to win in Tennessee. Early voting started 10 days ago, and reports are that turnout’s up 44 percent from the 2002 midterm elections. Those numbers might have something to do with an amendment that’s on the ballot to make gay marriage unconstitutional. But according to my unscientific exit polling outside Nashville’s Green Hills Library, voters are most fired up about the Senate race between Democrat Harold Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker.
An unsurprising early voting discovery: If you identify yourself as a close, personal friend of Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., you will most likely vote for Bob Corker. Also: If you claim that the soon-to-retire Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., suffers from “demonic possession,” you will most likely vote for Harold Ford Jr. Now, for the possibly instructive anecdotal evidence. Nashville resident Lee Marsden, 56, says that, though he’d call himself a Frist supporter, he’s voting for Ford. The infamous Playboy ad “was a low blow,” he thinks, and he’s “tired of the Republicans.” On the other hand, Tim Morgan, a 30-year-old architect, says he wants the Democrats to take over the Senate. Even though “Ford is depending on me to vote for him,” Morgan says, he can’t pull the trigger—he thinks Ford’s family history is shady, and he finds him a little too packaged. He voted for Corker.
For those who still haven’t picked their horse, Saturday night’s debate is the last chance to see the candidates square off. Corker and Ford have a nearly impossible task. For the second time in three debates, they have to convince voters to watch them instead of a University of Tennessee football game. With the Vols playing South Carolina on ESPN, the state’s undecideds are probably more focused on mortal rivals Phillip Fulmer and Steve Spurrier.
Since Tennessee voters are a bit distracted, this final debate feels like a set piece for the national and international press—there are reporters here from the BBC, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan. Corker probably has a better than even chance to win this race, but as far as the press corps is concerned, his name is “opponent.” When Ford enters the spin room, you can feel his gravitational pull. The notepads and cameras run away from the white-haired Corker and stampede to Ford’s side of the room. The foreigners all want to know what he thinks about the possibility of becoming the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction. Ford’s response: A lot of people “grossly underestimate the goodness and decency” of those who live below the Mason-Dixon Line.
I gird myself for the debate by watching some local television. In under an hour, I see around 20 Corker and Ford commercials. The Corker camp is counting on its ability to sell Ford’s charisma as empty calories—all frosting and no cake. That Playboy-party ad is no longer airing. The new, omnipresent Corker spot chides Ford for his “smooth talk,” even as he “took cash from Hollywood’s top X-rated porn moguls” and “wants to give the abortion pill to our schoolchildren.” Ford’s fighting dirty, too. His latest commercial suggests Corker will let the terrorists win because lots of 911 calls went unanswered when he was the mayor of Chattanooga.
After listening to these guys play rock ‘em, sock ‘em, it’s a surprise the debate is so mellow. Ford and Corker mostly stick to their talking points on health care, immigration, and terrorism. The testiest it gets is when Ford says Corker never lowered taxes during his mayoral tenure. “My opponent takes a lot of liberties with facts,” Corker responds robotically.
What of the negative ads? Ford, who’s taken to closing his commercials with scolding pronouncements like “I won’t let them make me something I’m not,” now does his best impression of Mark “I’m not here to talk about the past” McGwire. Rather than discussing “smut and slime during family time,” he wants to “strike a better, a more hopeful, and more positive note.” John G. Geer, an attack-ad expert furnished to the media by Vanderbilt University, tells me Ford’s self-congratulatory announcement made his opponent look sleazy. Indeed, when Corker says, “As far as the negative ads, I don’t like them either,” the crowd (admittedly peppered with Ford supporters) laughs at him.
Corker spends much of the debate persuading voters that he’s running for local office. “I’ve lived a Tennessee life,” he says in his opening statement, sprinkling his sentences with “Nash-VUHLs” and “GUV-ments.” He adds, “I want to bring that to Washington.” While Corker’s stump speech wouldn’t seem out of place in a race for county sheriff, Ford sounds like he’s running for U.N. secretary-general—he namedrops Dick Lugar and Joe Biden as he trumpets his support for energy independence, bilateral talks with North Korea, and a plan to partition Iraq into three regions. The charge that Ford has “Hollywood values” is substanceless. It would make a lot more sense to say that his head’s already inside the Beltway, far from the Tennessee Valley.
