I don't think that I have to labor too hard today to point out the overall preposterousness of Harold Ford's run for the New York Senate seat currently held by the appointed Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. Let's just take a look at the interview he gave the New York Daily News. Amid what the paper calls his "toughest comments to date" on Gillibrand, Ford defends himself against the wide-ranging perception that he's a Wall Street toady, given to tooling around Manhattan by limousine and helicopter.
In his first interview last week, Ford confessed that he gets regular pedicures, takes a chauffeur-driven car to work on most days and had been to Staten Island only once - by helicopter.
Monday, in an interview at the International House of Pancakes on W. 135th St., he tried to laugh off those comments in a clear effort to lend a more common touch to his growing persona.
"This race isn't about feet, it's about issues," he said of ribbing he has taken on the web and elsewhere of his regular pedicures.
Oh! Is it about issues? Well, that sure makes the paragraph that precedes this section look awfully strange:
The interview - granted under the condition that the questions be limited to his rationale for running, and not issues - comes at the end of a rocky first week of buzz surrounding his potential candidacy.
Elsewhere, he describes his "favorite New York rituals" as "walking," "strolling," and "jogging," which would seem to indicate that he wants to reinforce New York voters' confidence in the effectiveness of those pedicures.
Also, he expresses a fondness for "Alicia [Keys]'s and Jay-Z's new song." But don't call it pandering! I'm sure a panderer would have known that the song's title is "Empire State of Mind."
[h/t: Matt Yglesias]
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