Despite being endorsed by Steve Cohen, the representative for TN-09, and despite a wave of crude attacks on Cohen from the challenger Nikki Tinker that make the anti-Obama McCain ads look like children’s programming, Obama has not endorsed Cohen, the overwhelming favorite for re-nomination in a majority black district today, on the dubious grounds that he doesn’t want to interfere in a primary.  As FirstRead’s Mark Murray points out, however, Obama was willing to do a radio spot endorsing John Barrow in Georgia (who did not endorse until after Obama won the Georgia primary), much to the consternation of progressive bloggers. 

Even though he has a vastly more progressive record than his predecessor, Harold Ford, and he is the incumbent, Cohen did not receive the backing of the candidate he endorsed on the eve of Super Tuesday.  Unlike many members of the CBC, which Cohen briefly considered joining because of the composition of his district before the Caucus leadership told him to go away, Cohen backed Obama when there was little obvious advantage in doing so.  While this move on his part may have helped him with his constituents, this seems to be another case of Obama forgetting about the people who helped propel him to where he is today.  For progressives, it is just another warning that he will not stand up for progressive candidates even when they are very popular incumbents.

Update: An angle to this story that has since occurred to me is that Obama may have refrained from endorsing Cohen because of the latter’s opposition to the Armenian genocide resolution last year.  As longtime readers will remember, I have urged the adoption of this resolution in recognition that the Armenians did suffer from a planned genocidal campaign during WWI, and I had a column making that case in TAC last November (one of my most unpopular columns so far!).  Obama was and remains a supporter of recognition, and it might be that Obama knows about the strong opposition to Cohen from Armenian-American activists that would make him wary of endorsing Cohen.  That might resolve the apparent contradiction with the Barrow endorsement, since Barrow was a co-sponsor of the resolution.  All of that must remain speculative.  In the end, Cohen threw his support to Obama early on and has not been repaid for his loyalty.

Second Update: Check in with our man in Tennessee, A.C. Kleinheider, for Tennessee primary results and commentary.  As he reports, an additional aspect of this story is that Tinker is seen as representing the Ford family rivalry with Cohen, which dates back to the Ford-Cohen face-off in 1996, and Harold Ford Jr.’s wife donated the maximum to Tinker’s campaign.  Ford has now denounced Tinker’s tactics, which Kleinheider considers a very significant move for any Memphis-based pol.

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