Hussies for Ford.

This is a nice -- and I think accurate -- analysis from Garance Franke-Ruta on what exactly the infamous "call me ad" did to Harold Ford, possibly the only Dem Senate contender who's going to decisively lose today. It's all about class, and class-based gender insecurities. Corker's campaign is implying that voting for Ford is the sort of thing a low-class woman, easily led by an attractive, smooth-talking man, would do. And (extrapolating a little), the sort of thing that might get her in trouble, hint hint. It's an especially resonant theme given the Ford family's colorful history in the state, and given the implicit link that middle class southern poplulations (and everywhere to lesser or greater extent) make between propriety in gender-relations and socioeconomic status.

Not that the Tennessee GOP is really above race- and gay-baiting when it comes to Harold Ford. But what's going on in the "call me" is maybe a little more subtle.