JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

The day after Steve Cohen’s big win

By Eric Fingerhut · August 8, 2008

Rep. Steve Cohen's (D-Tenn.) victory in yesterday's Democratic congressional primary wasn't necessarily a surprise, but his 60 percentage point margin of victory was unexpected–and perhaps a sign why his African-American opponent, Nikki Tinker, was desperate enough to run an ad deemed anti-Semitic by many observers.

First of all, if you never saw the ad, which portrayed Cohen as an outsider because of his Judaism, you can check it out here.

The Atlantic's new blogger, Ta-nehisi Coates, argues that the advertisement was race-baiting, but doesn't quite rise to the level of Jew-baiting. I'm not really buying the argument–when you combine the line about visiting "our churches" with the line "he's the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school," would the ad make sense against a white Christian candidate?

Coates also explores whether the Congressional Black Caucus should have allowed Cohen to join when he applied to be a member last year.

An interesting argument: If Cohen had lost, it would have been deemed a horrible day for black-Jewish relations? So shouldn't his resounding win be seen as a really good day for black-Jewish relations?

A Nashville blogger calling herself "A Progressive Jew down in the Bible Belt" says the EMILY's List endorsement of Tinker demonstrates that the feminist organization "may have outlived its purpose."

And a religion blog argues that some of the media overlooked the religion angle in favor of playing up the race angle, and thus is missing part of the story.