Hours after I wrote that, judging by his behavior at the Waverly Inn last Friday night, Harold Ford was not running for the Senate, Harold Ford announced that he was not running for the Senate.

“I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened,” Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article that was posted on The New York Times Web Site on Monday night and appeared in Tuesday’s issue of the newspaper.

Damn. Sometimes I impress myself.

(Apologies for the self-congratulations. But when you do this for free, you have to get paid somehow.)

A footnote on Ford: He’s right about the primary, of course. What he doesn’t mention is that a) he doesn’t know jack about New York—Ford actually has a Southern accent, which, you know, doesn”t help, b) he hasn’t paid taxes in New York though he’s worked here for three years, and c) he’s made millions from a bank at a time when that’s not exactly the popular thing to do.

Not only would that primary have been ugly, but Ford might very well have lost it.