A feel-good meeting it was, the Democratic
get-out-the-vote rally held Sunday in a converted store-front on Elvis Presley
Boulevard. Among the several officials who turned up were Shelby County mayor A
C Wharton and 9th District congressman Steve Cohen. And among the
several candidates there were city council aspirant Paul Shaffer and U.S. Senate
candidate Bob Tuke.
As is the custom at any political gathering,
there were some distinct exaggerations, a whole lot of blarney, and an
exhortatory optimism that was — shall we say, arguably off-center in its
expectations of universal good fortune for the entire Democratic Party slate.
One of the luminaries present, however, city
councilman Myron Lowery, felt compelled to address a home truth or two when it
came his time to speak. First off, he noted something publicly that had been on
the minds of almost all the Democratic cadres at the event. “Tennessee has been
given up by Barack,” Lowery said bluntly.
He thereby gave voice to what everybody knew —
that the Obama-Biden campaign organization, despite having laid claim to
Democratic national chairman Howard Dean’s concept of a “50-state strategy,” and
despite having raised a formidable amount of money, including a record $150
million in September alone, had decided to bypass Tennessee, doling out only a
modest amount of expense money for Nika Jackson the campaign’s representative in
Memphis, and one other state employee.
No money for anything else, meaning that those
Obama-Biden signs you might see here and there were paid for by private
fund-raising activities here and elsewhere in Tennessee. Just as Lowery said,
and, despite conjectures here and there, based on a favorable poll or two, that
the state could be competitive in the presidential race, Tennessee had indeed
been given up by Obama’s campaign.
As Lowery also noted, that seemed odd, given that
only two years ago, then 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr. had
carried the Democratic standard and narrowly lost to Republican Bob Corker in a
U.S. Senate race.
Turning to Tuke, a Nashville lawyer and former
state Democratic chairman who took up the Senate race when few others were
willing to, Lowery complimented the candidate for taking his challenge to
Republican Lamar Alexander seriously and excoriated those Democrats who were
“hanging on to the coattails of our incumbent senator, Bob, and they really let
you go.”
That was said before the arrival at the event of
Wharton, who is among those Democrats who have publicly endorsed Republican
Alexander. Another late arrival was Rep. Cohen, whose presence at a recent
Alexander fund-raiser had been boasted by the incumbent senator’s organization.
Once on the site, however, Cohen included a reference in his remarks to the fact
that Tuke’s election would bring the Democrats closer to the filibuster-proof
total of 60 in the Senate.
That was a fact mentioned to the Democratic group
by Tuke himself, Obnama’s original state director, as a compelling argument for their support. (See clip one, above)
Said Tuke: “…[W]hen Barack Obama becomes president of the United States, he’s gonna need to have 60 senators in the United States Senate in order to vote for his legislative agenda so that it’s more than just a promise and more than just a dream, but a reality. And, ladies and gentlemen,I volunteer….”
in a brief Q&A
afterward (see video, below), Tuke disputed as “old” and out-of-date published polls
showing him trailing Alexander statewide by a two-to-one margin. He said he was
confident a heavy Democratic turnout would make him competitive and noted he was
spending at least half his time campaigning in Shelby County. That was the same
strategy he had pursued in his winning primary race in August.
