2006 POST-ELECTION WRAPUP!

Man, what a wild political ride 2006 has been! This is the 4th national election that I have followed in-depth. However, this election was way more interesting, because I was actually a participant in the process.

I took a break from my blog for a couple of weeks, because I didn't want my words to be used in the various campaigns. Now that results are in, I can resume posting random news and thoughts.

While I may have done the politician thing earlier this year, I am a media person at heart. I did my elementary school morning announcements. I wrote for my high school newspaper. I programmed an FM radio show for 2 years in college. I interned in the media/public relations offices for sports organizations in graduate school. And I have produced movies and TV shows while also repping clients in entertainment/media. I am much more at home doing media work as opposed to political work.

Although I could be considered a part of the so-titled "Ford Family Machine," I would be a part of it in name only, because I did not grow up around the traditional members of the machine such Sr., John and Emmitt.

I used to hate politics, because I thought it was full of BS and slick talk. I'm a practical, logical person and politicians were too fake to me. Whenever I had a chance to be around it, I refused. Except for some voter registration drives in my teens and random campaign work on the 1999 mayor's race, I was detached from politics. In fact, I didn't attend my 1st official political event until the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles where HFJ was the keynote speaker. Coincidentally, this is also when I first met State Senator Steve Cohen.

I probably wouldn't have gone to that event had it not been in Southern California. After being around the political scene for those days, I became a lot more interested in politics and became a sponge for information. I'm still no political expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy writing.

With that being said, here are my bullet point thoughts on the 2006 elections:

• Congrats to all the winners in the primaries and general elections around the country;
• Congrats to all candidates;
• I will never forget the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional seat, though I doubt I will run for a political office anytime soon.
• I first met Bob Corker at the Dutch Treat Luncheon in March, 2006. We both spoke and he said that we would see each other up on Capitol Hill. It reminded me of that old Marino/Montana Pepsi commercial in 1985 where Montana bought Marino a Diet Pepsi in light of the 49ers Super Bowl victory over the Dolphins. Marino promised he would be buying next year. Unfortunately, QB Marino never made it to the Bowl again, so he couldn't hold up his end of the bargain. Just like Marino, I didn't hold up my end of the bargain.
• If I couldn't win the Congress seat, I wanted to see Steve Cohen win. He was the most qualified candidate for the position. Good luck in DC! The District will need your best efforts.
• HFJ ran a great campaign and he should be proud of his efforts. He's now a true national personality. I am interested in seeing what HFJ does next...mayor? governor? corporate executive? lobbyist? actor? model? attorney? media host?
• Speaking of mayor, who is going to run against W.W. Herenton or will he rule forever? I hear people in the streets yelling for HFJ to run against Willie.
• With that being said, would you support HFJ over Willie for Mayor?
• Except for Joe Sr., Ophelia and Roderic, it was not a great political year for Fords (myself included). There are still people who support the family and non-family with the same last name, but any future candidates must definitely be qualified for the position or there will be other losses.
• As my brother Justin said, the machine is not broken. There are merely a few defective parts. When you have defective parts, you don't destroy the machine. You send the defective parts back to the factory for retooling and modification. If the parts are beyond repair, then you get new parts. That is what needs to happen here. Candidates need to prove themselves worthy at a local level.
• Democrats should not worry about impeaching Bush right now. There are too many problems in our country and an impeachment would open up a partisan battle that would be economically wasteful. It would then give Republicans ammunition in 2008 to win back the House and retain the Presidency.
• Although I lost in the primary, I was able to garner 9,334 votes with only two full-time members on my campaign staff and very little money. The alleged carpetbagger candidate and his 21-year old campaign manager brother - that was pretty much it. We ran a grassroots campaign that simply couldn't compete when Tinker and Cohen broke out their bank and started their commercial wars. However, I am still proud of our efforts and the respect we gained in the Memphis political scene.
• Thanks to all the supporters and staff!
• Julian Bolton, where are you? I still owe you one for your last campaign commercial. It is too bad that your flawed strategy didn't get you a sufficient number of votes to advance.
• Who will get Sen. Cohen's state senate seat (try saying that 3 times fast)? I hope that he/she is a qualified candidate.
• Where there be another People's Convention for the Memphis mayor's race?
• The Governator won a sequel out in California. I never really liked Angelides and that sentiment seemed to be widespread.
• Mr. T, thanks for keeping my name out of your mouth.
• Many of the candidates in the 2006 Congressional race need to run for city offices in 2007. I'm talking about Lee Harris, Bill Whitman, Ed Stanton and Joe Kyles. Run, run, run!
• Hillary, please do not run for President! You will not win.
• Hang onto your hats...the 2007 Memphis City elections will be wilder than the 2006 County and General Elections.
• Web logs (blogs) have made politics into an entirely different animal. I know that I turned to the blogs for all the latest information (true or not). This was true throughout the country. I tried to catch them all whether positive or negative...Volunteer Voters, The Ford Report, Blogging for Corker, Pesky Fly, Leftwingcracker, 55-40, West TN Liberal, River City Mud, Freedonian, Daily Docket, Voting in Memphis, Blue Collar Republican, Thaddeus Matthews, Polar Donkey, Daily Kos, etc...