Spin, Spin, Spin--Until The Spin Stops Working: Memphis TN-9 Congressional Race

It appears that Charlotte Bergmann, the GOP candidate for TN-9, the Congressional seat for Memphis, may truly be poised to upset Steve Cohen, the Democratic incumbent.

Charlotte is the Democrats' nightmare: She's black, she's accompished, she's conservative, she's a church lady, and she's--well--a she. And she ain't skeered of nobody.

Memphis has been a virtual Democrat plantation for decades, dating back to its founding by Andrew Jackson, one of the founders of the Democratic Party, and Boss Crump, who ran the place for nearly four decades. He was succeeded by the Ford family, famous for its mortuary and funeral business, and its curious habit of voting the dead. Wonder how that happened, huh? The patriarch, John, is still serving out his sentence for selling his office of State Senator to undercover FBI agents with a briefcase of cash. They had him on video for the trial. He also raised eyebrows when he emptied his 9mm into a lorry that pissed him off one day on I-40, if memory serves.

It is also one of America's most blighted, violent, and racially divided cities. Portions are just fabulously beautiful, but so many who could escape to the eastern suburbs did just that. Memphis is a place unto itself, its own state of being.

It may be just about to wake up to what the welfare state has done to it.

This from The Memphis Commercial Appeal from last week.

It doesn't take a degree in political science or expertise in demography to understand the challenge Democrats find themselves facing after the first four days of early voting: Matching the energy and motivation of traditional Republican voters for the Nov. 2 elections is again proving difficult after an August election that was disastrous for local Democrats.

This time around, the results could reverberate well beyond Shelby County borders to the respective Capitol Hills in Nashville and Washington.

The data made available by the Shelby County Election Commission from the first three days of early voting (Wednesday through Friday) show that of the 15,600 people who cast early ballots, 8,623 were categorized as registered white voters, or 55.3 percent of the overall total -- a stunning number considering that white people make up just 29.8 percent of the county's 603,070 registered voters.

Compare that to ballots cast by 3,033 registered black voters, or just 19.4 percent of the total for the group that records show account for 34.4 percent of the county's electorate.

Hmmm....and a goodly number of those black voters could well be voting for Ms. Bergmann!

Soooo...the Machine has really ratcheted up the ground game, and Himself has dispatched Cabinet members to campaign in Memphis. Nobody used to bother, 'cuz Memphis was a Democrat plantation. In other words, they have reason to worry.

Now, remember the spin? How this election isn't about Obama? Well, let's check in with the Dems campaigning in Memphis:

The big Republican numbers came despite a week of strong Democratic organizing, according to county chairman Van Turner. Democrats had a big rally Tuesday night in conjunction with President Barack Obama's political arm, Organizing for America, that included popular Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and two top White House cabinet-level officials -- Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter also greatly increased his presence here last week, including participating on phone banking Saturday.

Turner acknowledged that "the energy is on the Republicans' side," which he ascribed to "hatred and fear" of national Democratic leaders.

"We're trying to tell people that they went to the polls in record numbers in 2008 and they should not sit this one out," Turner said. "We say that a vote from you this election is a vote for the president."

Did ya'll catch that last line?

"We say that a vote from you this election is a vote for the president."

That first pronoun of the sentence is in the plural, ya'll.

'We'.

As the day approaches, the veneer begins to slip away. The spin jest won't pass the sniff test no moh'.

If you're a registered voter in Memphis, and you love your city, this is the best opportunity in years to break the back of the machine that has victimized your town for so long. It's a way to break the back of the racial polarization that the machine has fed and exploited in order to remain in power.

Even if Charlotte doesn't win, but has a good showing, your vote for her sends the message that timez iz changed, and bizness az uzual jest won't do no moh'.

Howz'at foh sum Hope-n-Change, ya'll?