Update: Cohen Beats Racist Tinker in Tennessee 9th

Warner Todd Huston* | August 8, 2008

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week I wrote about the Congressional race between Steve Cohen (D, TN) and challenger Nikki Tinker for the Democratic seat in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. I wondered why Barack Obama had not come out to denounce the racist attacks that Tinker was unleashing on a fellow Democrat.

Of course, the reason Obama didn’t attack Tinker for her racist attacks was because she was a black woman and Obama refused to come out against her based on her gender and race (Congressman Cohen is a white, Jew).

The racist Tinker unleashed ads against Cohen that likened him to a KKK member and suggested that he is an apostate Jew. Other Tinker supporters claimed that Cohen couldn’t represent them because he was not a black man. She used every racist trick at her disposal to defeat Steve Cohen’s reelection effort.

So where was Barack Obama to denounce the racist ads Tinker promulgated on the voting public? No where to be seen until half the voters were already done casting their vote. On the day of the election, Obama belatedly issued this comment:

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”

Regardless of Obama’s tepid reactions, the racist tactics of Nikki Tinker lost… and big.

With 100% of the precincts reporting, the result is a 79% to 19% victory for Steve Cohen. This is a major rejection of Tinker’s racist campaign tactics. Tinker heavily lost even the ground she had in the 2006 Primary in which she ran against Cohen, then receiving 25% of the vote. Memphis has a 61% black population.

On Thursday Cohen told the Commercial Appeal that, “The people of Memphis are more sophisticated voters that deal with issues and someone’s record and not simply race.”

Now, I am no Cohen supporter, to be sure. He is a typical far left Liberal. But, it is still good news that the hatemongering, racism, and sexist attacks that Tinker foisted on Memphis lost her this election. Any day that such tactics can be defeated is a good day. Obama should take notice and stop trying to inject race into his election!

(Photo credit: Memphis Commercial Appeal)

Contributor's website: http://thenma.org/blogs/index.php/huston

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