Well, I have to agree with Nathan Moore.  Corker’s most recent ad struck me the wrong way.

I am annoyed by one of Corker’s radio ads (it might also be a TV ad … I run out of the room screaming when any political commercials come on the screen these days).  And, I must say that Corker is not the only politician guilty of the tactic I am about to describe.  He is just the one I happened to hear this morning.

Corker spends his thirty seconds developing a contrast between his personal history and that of Congressman Ford.  Easy enough to do.  One line in the script is, “Harold Ford went off to study at the University of Pennsylvania, while Bob Corker … well, he went to the University of Tennessee.”

I translate that statement as follows:

“Harold Ford went up north for some of that fancy book learnin’.  Betcha he don’t know all the words to Rocky Top, though!”

Look, I love a good campaign … and good ads.  But, in this decade, this kind of ad just doesn’t work anymore.  Tennessee is not the state that it was 20 years ago.  Face it, MANY people in Nashville did not grow up here.  I just don’t think this kind of ad resonates anymore.  The “carpetbagger” label is just not what it used to be.