Can Harold Ford Sound Like a New Yorker? Fuhgeddaboudit…

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: It’s become something of a tradition: If you want your name in the mix for a US Senate seat in New York, you need to sit down for a “wide-ranging” interview with The New York Times. But as Caroline Kennedy learned in late 2008, when she wanted to be considered as Hillary Clinton’s replacement, the interview doesn’t always close the deal.  Harold Ford Jr., the former Tennessee congressman who’s now considering a Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., sat down with the Times’ Michael Barbaro yesterday. How does he fare? Despite what Barbaro describes as his “intermittent Southern accent,” Ford proclaims his support for the New York Yankees, though he concedes that he hasn’t been to the Mets’ new ballpark, Citi Field. One up, one down. Among the other tidbits sprinkled into the interview are the encouragement he received from fellow passengers on a recent flight to Palm Beach; a helicopter trip where he touched down on Staten Island; the fact that he likes to breakfast at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue; plus an admission that he receives regular pedicures (treatment for a foot condition, he says). On the substance, he attacks Gillibrand for supporting President Obama’s health care bill, and for not supporting a federal bailout of the financial industry. He proclaims himself a gay marriage supporter and describes himself as “pro-choice” — notwithstanding his votes in favor of banning gay marriage, and his description of himself while in Tennessee as “pro-life.” He softens his positions on both immigration and gun control. Ford also tests out a tentative slogan — “Harold Ford: nobody’s man but ours” — and says this about his adopted home state: “New York has, in many ways, become home.”