Nikki, I'd say your porch is waiting

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 8/10/8 | Wendi C. Thomas

[SmithL]

The repeated thud-thuds you heard were the wheels of the bus -- driven first by abortion-rights advocates Emily's List.

Then by former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. and then presidential contender Barack Obama himself, all rolling over congressional wannabe Nikki Tinker, who is a black woman.

Her offense -- and it was an especially stupid one -- was tasteless attack ads. One linked U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a white, Jewish man, to the Ku Klux Klan. (Doesn't she know the Klan hated Jews just as much as black folk?)

The other ad charged Cohen was voting against prayer in school while at the same time tapping his foot in "our churches" -- the "our" being particularly unsubtle code for "black."

She got her hand spanked by supporters and Obama, who didn't endorse either leading candidate in Thursday's primary.

Forget "The First 48." It was Tinker who landed Memphis in the national news last week, and not for anything of which we can be proud.

MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann called Tinker "the worst person in the world" for her "shameful" ad linking Cohen to the Klan.

Then, to add insult to injury, she had her rear parts handed unceremoniously to her after Thursday's walloping in the District 9 congressional race. She lost big time to Cohen, who drew 79 percent of the vote, compared to Tinker's paltry 19 percent.

November's general election is little more than perfunctory for Cohen; Thursday's win means that barring bizarre developments (which are always possible; after all, this is Memphis) Cohen is going back to Congress.

But in everything, there is a lesson, and Tinker's loss has been instructive. It is a play book on how NOT to run a campaign.

Tinker is not from around these parts, and around here, that matters. She's a 'Bama girl, and maybe she should take her political aspirations where she has roots.

But worse -- and given this, the outcome is a testament to an electorate that deserves just a tad of credit -- after the televised debate, after all the ads, after all the drama, I still cannot tell you what Tinker stands for.

And so it was only fitting that Cohen, who could and would rattle off a list of accomplishments, beat Tinker like she stole something.

Now, to be sure, Cohen truly botched his "interaction" with the Armenian-American filmmaker he threw out of his house Wednesday. Surely he'll issue an apology for that soon.

But Cohen was a standout as a freshman congressman. He's set the bar high and his constituents will expect even more from him this second term.

We voters have learned something too, things we'd do well to remember the next time we bemoan how racially divided our city can be.

Politicians can play dirty pool, as Tinker did with her ads, and the voters, black and white, can and will see through it.

Black people can and will vote for white candidates -- we've often had no choice in the not-so-distant past when ballots didn't include brown people. Cohen had to have a significant number of black votes to win, and he got them.

Black people don't like foolishness anymore than any other race of people -- we can spot a carpet-bagging, race-card-playing, no-substance-having candidate as fast as anyone else.

What seems like pandering to some -- i.e., the House apology for slavery and discrimination sponsored by Cohen -- can be meaningful to others.

Even though the turnout was abysmal -- about 15 percent of registered voters showed up for the primary -- those who did vote chose the candidate they thought best, not the candidate who looked most like them.

If Tinker has any sense, after losing her primary bid in 2006 and again Thursday, she'll give up on a political career in the Volunteer State.

There's a place for an ambitious lady like Tinker. Perhaps she should look for a porch in Alabama with her name on it.

[SmithL]

The Memphis Dems did Obama a favor this week.

[steel_resolve]

What seems like pandering to some -- i.e., the House apology for slavery and discrimination sponsored by Cohen -- can be meaningful to others.

sounds like pandering to me. NO REPARATIONS. EVER.

[Clink]

MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann called Tinker "the worst person in the world" for her "shameful" ad linking Cohen to the Klan.

Had Cohen been a Republican, I'm sure that Olberdick would have been calling her the "the greatest person in the world".