Ford: Young Man On Mission

When Harold Ford Jr. visits the schools in his district in Tennessee, he looks more like a young teaching assistant than a U.S. congressman, reports Early Show National Correspondent Jon Frankel.

In fact, his first run for Congress was dubbed "The Kindergarten Campaign," because the schoolchildren he visited seemed to be the only ones who took him seriously.

"The political establishment at home was totally opposed to me and told me I didn't have a shot at winning, that I was too young and too inexperienced," says Ford, 29.

Two terms into his congressional career, Harold Ford Jr. is a comer. By charting a moderate centrist course, often breaking ranks with his own Democratic party to support moderate Republican policies, he's established a reputation as a consensus builder. Still, he says the real work to be done is at home.

"It's easy to go to Washington and stand on the floor and yell," Ford says. "And it's an important gig, don't get me wrong, but that's not why I ran for the Congress. The better you do now, the better you'll do tomorrow, and the better all of us do tomorrow."

It's at the schools in his district where he says he does his most important work.

On a visit to one school, he leads a group of students in a pledge: "I promise to ... work hard ... play by the rules, ... keep God first."

If he sounds like a Christian conservative one minute, he'll surprise you and come on like a traditional liberal the next; that's because as a centrist Democrat, he's trampling on family territory. You see, Harold Ford Jr. inherited his seat from the first black congressman ever elected from Tennessee: his father, Harold Ford Sr., a congressional veteran of 22 years,

"He's my constituent, and he's my father, and I'll never forget the night I was elected," says the younger Ford. "We stood alone before I went out to give my victory speech, and he said, 'I'll give you one piece of advice. Take care of the people. You're in the big league now. Be honest and take care of the people.'"

Harold Sr. says he always knew his son was a natural.

"Congress and politics has been part of his life. He cut a radio spot for me when he was 4 years of age and it said, 'If you want better houses, better schools and lower cookie prices, vote for my dad for Congress.'"

Father and son may be close enough to finish each other's sentences, but there is no question that the young congressman has put some distance between his own centrist "New Democrat" politics and the confrontational legacy his father forged in a racially polarized South.

"It was a different time," says Harold Jr. "There were boundaries and parameters and other pressures that he had to deal with that I don't necessarily have to deal with because his generation tore them down."

But he bristles at those who question his Democratic orthodoxy, suggesting that his aproach puts ambition ahead of conviction.

"I'm a Democrat (who) believes we ought to be able to spend money on programs that work and when the day is over be able to pay our bills," says Ford. "If that makes me a Democrat or Republican or Independent, I'll accept that. I search for coalitions to try to do these things."

Midway through his second term in Congress, at the age of 29, is he considering a run for the Senate?

"I don't know. I don't think age is really a factor," he says. "If you're willing to do the job, willing to work and willing to take a risk, that's how things happen in this country."