Better Ideas. Driven By MSNBC

Doug Clawson Real Clear Politics on Harold Ford's seamless return to MSNBC after bagging the NY Senate race:  So Ford, the Democrat, is heading back to MSNBC, one of the loudest mouthpieces for his party. At the Peacock Network's cable channel, Ford will return to the "political analyst" role he vacated while dipping many toes in the piping-hot political waters in New York.  That according to Michael Calderone of Politico, who also reports that some NBC flak is satisfied "everything's back to normal" with Ford.... This isn't a jab at MSNBC, or even a garden-variety egomaniac like Ford, it's another round-house punch at what partisan politics and alleged "news" outlets have become in 2010: one in the same.

Ford to MSNBC is no different than Sarah Palin to Fox News - or for that matter, any of the other would-be political kings and queens that have gone galloping into that conservative news channel's ample stable of "political analysts" just waiting for the chance to run the campaign trail again... I will point out that given the almighty ratings in the business, Palin, and her political brothers in arms at Fox, are making their pitch to an ever-swelling audience of admirers.

But Ford returns home to MSNBC where he can cool his heels, talk to his base, try out some political shtick, and ready himself for his next assault on some governing throne somewhere.

Much better he takes his chances as one of the many "political analysts" taking up space at these cable-news channels just waiting for another crack at some stupid machine.