We wish the race to replace Bob Corker as United States senator hadn't come to this. Indeed, we wish Corker were running for a third term.
Unfortunately, a year ago, the former Chattanooga businessman and mayor - and current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - said he was done.
Thus, a race for a seat in a Senate that some say is up for grabs in next month's election comes down to Republican Marsha Blackburn, 66, an eight-term congressman (her term) from Brentwood and a popular former governor, Democrat Phil Bredesen, 74 (75 next month), who was recruited to run by a party that saw no other potential path to victory.
Frankly, it's been ugly, with bucket-loads of money coming in on both sides from outside the state to bash the other candidate. With the mudslinging, it's difficult to know what either candidate really believes. We know what the other side says, but it's hard to know what's real.
In the end, we believe it is vital for Republicans to control the Senate, so we give our nod to Blackburn. Though she says she differs from President Donald Trump on some issues (tariffs and debt among them), she will be a reliable vote for most of his agenda. We don't approve of the day-to-day personal conduct of the president, but we believe the issues he has pushed have made the country stronger, he has installed judges who will uphold (and not make) the law, and he has put more money into the pockets of most Americans.
Bredesen, from the outset, attempted to paint himself as a political moderate, willing to go along with the president where possible but ready to part from him on a wide variety of issues. That sounds inviting to voters, and politically expedient, but we believe most Tennesseans will be fooled if they fall for the ploy.
Democrats, since the election of Trump, have had one mission: Stop him at all causes. The former governor, who plans to be in Washington, D.C., for only one term, according to some on his staff, was not recruited to the race to be a political weather vane. Where it comes to important votes, he is unlikely to buck his increasingly strident, take-no-prisoners party. In other words, if you've seen Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, you've seen Bredesen.
Just last week, a hidden camera video revealed the hypocrisy in the Democrat's campaign. Several of his paid staffers, questioned about the candidate's wishy-washy support of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for a U.S. Supreme Court seat, said he really didn't support Kavanaugh, disliked Trump and would strongly support the Democrats' agenda.
Blackburn, meanwhile, holds policy positions of most voters who tend to vote Republican: strongly pro-life (and fought against Planned Parenthood), supporter of gun rights, supporter of better border security, and supporter of veterans and strict constructionalist judges.
She fits reliably with the long history of this page in promoting smaller government, cutting government spending and lowering taxes.
With Blackburn, Tennesseans don't have to guess how she'll vote. With Bredesen, they have to gamble he would be the only Democrat in the Senate who is not malleable. We endorse a sure thing in Blackburn.