The latest Quinnipiac poll has come out in the Connecticut Senate race, and it shows Joe Lieberman leading Ned Lamont by 49% to 38% with Republican Schlessinger trailing at a dismal 4%.
The two biggest factors playing into this is Lieberman’s support from Republicans, 78% of which are pulling for some more Joementum. It appears as though many Connecticut Republicans are voting tactically: Schlessinger has no chance of winning and is an exceptionally poor candidate. Lieberman is as liberal as they come, but at least is right on the war and puts country before party. Lamont is a creature of the increasingly radical netroots and hardly trustworthy on any issue. It’s hardly surprising that the Republicans are choosing to go with the devil they know rather than than empty suit being filled by the Kossacks and the radical left.
On the other hand, Lieberman has a strong level of support with independent voters. As Byron York notes in National Review Online, Lamont’s unfavorables have risen the more people get to know him. That in itself isn’t all that uncommon, but those unfavorable figures have been rising faster than his favorable ratings. That isn’t healthy for a politician, especially going against an incumbant like Lieberman.
Lamont has a relatively small chance at winning in Connecticut. While Lamont trailed Lieberman early on in the primary, the makeup of the electorate in the general election will be much more hospitable to Lieberman than it will to Lamont. Lieberman has the advantages of incumbancy, more support among Republicans than the Republican candidate, and national attention on Lamont’s weaknesses as a candidate of the “netroots”. Lieberman’s anti-partisan message may also have quite a bit of resonance with Connecticut voters.
Lieberman might have won the primary had he not alienated Connecticut Democrats by announcing his intentions to run as an independent so early. Lamont is unlikely to benefit from another such blunder. Lamont’s inexperience and lack of depth won’t help him either. It looks like that Lieberman still has enough “Joementum” to push him across the finish line this November.
As Lieberman tacks further and further to the right, co-opting every Dick Cheney foreign policy talking point and accusing war critics of emboldening the enemy, his support among Democrats and independents will erode. Lieberman is now the Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut and his rhetoric can be expected to match that if he wants to keep would-be Schlesinger voters in his corner. As I said the other day, I can’t see how Lieberman wins with the tightrope walk he’ll have to win to keep his schizophrenic coalition together.
Except that’s not what Lieberman’s been doing. It is not true that everyone who opposes the war or thinks the war is going badly supports an immediate pullout. Lamont’s one-note tune on Iraq is already wearing thin. Lamont’s appeal is almost strictly limited to that issue, and there’s only so much traction he can gain. Lieberman has been harshly critical of the waging of this war when appropriate, but has also recognized that Iraq had made progress since the fall of Saddam. (Sadly, much of that progress is now being masked by the violence.)
Lamont is likely going to be unable to get any traction outside of the anti-war faction in the Democratic Party — and many Democrats are starting to wake up to the fact that hitching all their wagons to that one issue just isn’t smart politics.
Oh please. Lieberman only supports the war and our actions in the overall GWOT. He’s been critical of Bush and how some things have been done and had never been shy about saying so. On everything else, he is as far to the left as the rest of the Democrat leadership. But, and this is the real bone of contention, he put’s his country’s security ahead of partisan political gain and put’s his critisim in the terms of what do we need to do to win the war. Not what do we need to do to get out. He also doesn’t go give interviews to a German magazine talking about what a horrible country we are and how BushLied(TM), Blood for Oil or any of the rest of that garbage.
Joe Lieberman is an old fashioned lib in a party that only values hysterical extremism. And it is only Democratic hysteria that could lead the Nutroots down a road to abandoning and targeting a man that agrees with them on damn near everything else in the socialist platform. Joe Lieberman is no more a Republican that I am a Democrat. We need more rational Dems like him, just like we need 2 sane, rational parties to keep things balanced.
And just how is tossing out Joe with the bathwater supposed to help the Dems nationally? Will that really make the country trust the Dems with our security? I don’t think so. At least voting for Joe Lieberman, all of his far left social policies aside, will help to ensure the war is taken seriously by at least one Dem. So a lot of Republicans will hold their noses and vote for him. What other choice do they have?
P.S. If Joe’s stance onthe war is so bad, how come the Kos Kiddos and all of the rest of the Nutroots whackos aren’t going after Nelson in Nebraska or any of the other res state senator’s up for re-election? They’re as publically behind the war as Joe is, so why no calls from Kos and his groupies for there removal? Hmmm?