For the record, I'm an admirer of Harold Ford, the former Congressman from Tennessee who is now the current Chair of the DLC. I met him briefly for the first time a few months ago in the Fox News green room on Super Tuesday (he's since signed on with MSNBC), and we chatted about the race as the results were coming in. He is without question one of the rising stars of the Democratic party, and despite his loss in the '06 Senate race you can rest assured Ford will be back on the ballot somewhere soon.

Like most good politicians, Ford is exceedingly smooth in public, especially when dealing with the press. He can be so smooth, in fact, that in certain circumstances it can be tough to get him to give a straight answer to a fairly simple question. I took up the challenge at Monday morning's DLC press conference. Here's the exchange:

RCP: Congressman Ford, Senator Obama has tacked to the right recently on a few issues including public financing, FISA, and what not, and it's led to some discussion about what he really believes. Paul Krugman in the New York Times today poses the question: is Obama a progressive who's been posing as a centrist? Or is the opposite: is he really a centrist who's been posing as a progressive for the primaries? What's your answer to that question?

FORD: First of all, Tom, that's a good question. I think two things. One, what Senator Obama has achieved in this campaign is something we've not seen, at least in the last 15, maybe 20 years in presidential politics. He's been able to rise above a lot of these labels, he's been able to transcend the kind of labeling that occurs even within the spectrum of a party. And I think there's some frustration on the part of those who write about this.

I read Paul's piece this morning and it's curious, because on one level he was critical of Clinton and on another level he was praiseworthy of Reagan. Last week, you can look at his columns he was critical of Reagan's policies but praiseworthy of some of the approaches that Clinton had.

At this point Ford embarked on a 3-minute long disquisition/filibuster about the merits of Bill Clinton's presidency. Eventually, I found a small opening and jumped back in for another go:

RCP: But a lot of voters are trying to get to know who he [Obama] is at his core. And so the question again is: is he at an instinctual level - would you describe him as instinctually a progressive or instinctually as a centrist in his orientation and the way he approaches issues?

FORD: I would define him as a patriot, who wants badly to improve America's standing around the globe and to make America - allow America to live up to everything we are and can be to every single American. I don't know what you call that. But I call him the Democratic nominee, and on November 7 I look forward to calling him the President elect. Thank you all very much.

With that final flourish we were done, and it was quite clear that in my battle to try and get Congressman Ford to give a straight answer, he won and I lost.