Who would have ever predicted that running openly race-baiting commercials against your opponent would be a bad thing:
Facing tons of negativity — Ku Klux Klan images, less-than-subtle references to his Jewish faith — incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen (who is white) easily won his primary against challenger Nikki Tinker (who is black) in yesterday’s Democratic primary in a majority-black congressional seat in Memphis, TN. Obama even weighed in on the race yesterday, saying in a statement that Tinker’s “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.” However, the Cohen folks weren’t all that pleased that Obama never endorsed Cohen over Tinker.
She probably not only lost that election, but has now ruined any future political career.
*** Update ***
More here.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Yeah, don’t bet the farm on that one.
chopper
she can always get a job making commercials for mccain.
Grumpy Code Monkey
BTW, when did this whole “loose-when-you-really-meant-lose” thing start happening? I don’t remember seeing this particular mistake before the late ’90s, but since then it’s fucking everywhere, including ostensibly proof-read advertising copy. My favorite was seeing a printed flier with the words “LOOSE WEIGHT!” in 48-point type at the top. It just made me think of the old joke headline, “Orson Welles drops 100 lbs., kills 3.”
How do you manage to get out of high school and not learn the difference between “loose” and “lose”?
4tehlulz
>>How do you manage to get out of high school and not learn the difference between “loose” and “lose”?
When you let the spell checker do all the work for you.
Dreggas
It’s called No Child Left Behind.
TR
No, I’d agree she’s done.
You don’t gain national notoriety as a race-baiting Democrat, get rebuked by your party’s beloved presidential nominee, and then lose in a 4-1 asskicking against a freshman incumbent and somehow move forward from that.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person, too.
nightjar
I’m glad. Was getting tired of reading wingnut analysis on how racist minorities are. This was one individual jerk candidate and the good people in her district said no to smear tactics. Good for them!
libarbarian
Bad Spelling is the single greatest threat to the American Family?
TR
Not only that, but “a option”?
Zifnab
Fix’d
Adolphus
Can’t blame NCLB. Whoever is responsible for those errors graduated from 8th Grade long before it was enacted. You know “the good old days.”
Unless of course people are turning over their car decal needs to 10 year olds.
Incertus
That “loose” for “lose” is one of the banes of my existence as an English instructor–drives me nuts, right along with the “would of” for “would have.”
As for Tinker, anyone surprised she was the handpicked successor of Harold Ford Jr.?
Martin
The introduction of texting. An entire generation of people have been encouraged to take a normal vocabulary and squeeze any vowels and common letters out of it and still make sense of the results. They’re pros at that, but the process is non-reversible. They know what the word sounds like in their head, but they can’t remember where all the vowels belong any more.
Algerine
I think she could save a future political career if she’s willing to work for it. First, she apologizes profusely for the ad. A real ‘I screwed up’ apology instead of one of those ‘I’m sorry people got offended’ non-apologies. Then she needs to really really bust her butt supporting Cohen in the general and being his biggest cheerleader after the election. If she can prove she’s a loyal ally of Cohen’s, the ad will get written off as a bad mistake. And if she can prove to Cohen she’s a loyal supporter, it’ll insulate her against any future opponents bringing up the ad to use against her. After all, if the one you attacked stands up for you, that’ll really blunt its effectiveness as a club.
aarrgghh
and this is why they use “dogwhistles” …
Napoleon
Off topic, but Edwards as admitted he was having an affair to ABC.
Napoleon
Also off topic, but on the subject of Ron Suskind. There was a very good interview of him on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (free download available for it) and he strongly defended his position on the forged documents.
Napoleon
Also off topic, but on the subject of Ron Suskind. There was a very good interview of him on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (free download available for it) and he strongly defended his position on the forged documents.
Cris
They are, just not to American 10-year-olds.
aarrgghh
another phrase (of many …) that irks me — because it’s becoming accepted into common usage — is “first off”, used to start a list. i’m pretty sure it’s a corruption of “first of all”.
doesn’t drive me to drink, but i haven’t been able to make my peace with it.
Egilsson
This is excellent news for McCain!
Brother Flaming Taser of Warm Reason
I have to admit I long for a bag of popcorn while I watch the dKos melt down.
Pb
aarrgghh,
Uh, what? Are you older than John McCain? No, really:
Noah
Meanwhile, in Republican land, America has apparently never improved.
The Other Steve
Thank God! I never liked the bastard anyway.
Maybe he’ll just go away and shut up.
chopper
oh yeah? come here a minute. (slap)
The Grand Panjandrum
Isn’t Louisiana still in the Union? A quick move to Louisiana, change of address card to the Post Office, and … voila!
Brachiator
To me this seems emminently fair. This left room for Tinker to abjectly apologize and also room for voters to make their own decision. As it was, the voters chose wisely.
Yep. She had been endorsed by Emily’s List. Now she is toxic. Ironically, about the only group who might endorse her in the future would be the Klan.
The barbarians are at the gate. Even some educators are throwing in the “towl.”
Ed Drone
That’s “would’ve,” hence the phonetic mistake (and why isn’t “phonetic” spelled like it sounds?*). My sister uses it in writing, as well as in speaking.
Ed
* thank you, George Carlin (or was it Gallagher I first heard it from?)
Digital Amish
Probably about the time someone started thinking noone would notice that they didn’t know the proper construction of “no one”.
jbarntt
The American Prospect seems to think it is fair to blame Republicans for Tinker’s odious tactics:
So she took a page out of the Republican playbook and appealed to the worst of human instincts — attempting to paint her opponent as a dangerous cultural outsider because of his association with whiteness.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=when_identity_politics_backfires
I guess Nikki Tinker must be a Republican mole, probably working with Bush/Cheney/Rove. She is a hottie tho’ which only bolsters my suspicion.
Church Lady
I was at a meeting today and yesterday’s race was a hot topic. The vast majority of the women present identify themselves as Republicans and every single one of them said that they voted yesterday in the Democratic primary in order to vote for Steve Cohen. All were absolutely disgusted by Nikki Tinker’s ads, and all think very highly of our current Congressman. The American Prospect credited Cohen’s win completely to black voters in the 9th District. They forget that 40% of the voters in this district are white. I sincerely doubt that many whites cast a vote for Ms. Tinker after seeing her ads.
Chuck Butcher
Just to make the point…Emily’s List is identity politics in one of its worst iterations. I don’t care about reserving funding, but their list of support blows.
Krista
My pet peeve is when people write “alot” instead of “a lot”. Some of the people who do this are people with whom I graduated. All I can think is, “We received the same education, so what happened to you?”
LarryB
I’d say that the Tinker campaign wasn’t listening during the Dem primary. It’s pretty clear by now that while identity politics are alive and well in the Democratic party, it’s not cool to use it as a club to beat your opponent with. Yay for our team.