Joe Lieberman will run in the general.

[Balta1701]

so what does everyone think of joe leiberman's chances now that hes running as an indy, taking into consideration his 51%-48% loss in the primary?

I think it's way too early to tell how to weigh the various factors.

 

Helping Lamont, we have:

1. The collapse of institutional party support for Lieberman, including the removal of all his endorsements, fundraising from other Dem. Party campaign committees, union support, and potentially the departure of a few of Lieberman's campaign staff (still rumored at this point.)

2. The continued collapse of Lieberman's message: He's spent the last month trying to insist he is a Democrat, and now he's running on the "Lieberman" ticket. How he can manage to balance that with what his campaign has already done, who knows.

3. Sudden national recognition for Lamont. Lieberman has, for the most part, been able to dominate the media in this race as much as he wanted, since Lamont didn't really show up on anyone's radar until a few weeks ago, and Lieberman is the classic guy you call to get a Democrat on a Republican-leaning panel on any talk show. Now Lamont will have a chance at that.

4. Money. Lieberman spent more on this election than Lamont. That will change now that #1 has changed.

5. Joementum. Lamont's won 1 election now.

 

Helping Lieberman we have:

1. A much larger turnout in November, which could bring more Republicans to voting for him.

2. An ungodly weak Republican candidate, which won't peel off many votes from him, and could even endorse him at some point.

3. Republican dollars; expect more than a few to flow into this race if Joe stays in it.

4. Time. His campaign sat on its ass until a few weeks ago and laughed off this challenge...until it actually started looking like he could lose, at which point they raced to slap together something. Now they have 3 more months to actually form a ground game.

 

I for one think that #1 on the Lamont list is the biggest factor. Lieberman no longer can bring in Clintons to try to salvage his campaign at the last minute, because they're all endorsing Lamont. Lieberman can no longer count on Union support, or other interest group support, because most of those will follow the nominee.

 

There's also the wild card of course of any charges coming out of the alleged "Website hacking", whether they wind up being directed at someone in Lieberman's campaign, Lamont's campaign, or someone outside of both. Supposedly there are outfits on the ground right now doing polling on the general, once a few of those hit we'll at least have a better idea of where the starting gate is.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Balta1701

[mr_genius]

3. Republican dollars; expect more than a few to flow into this race if Joe stays in it.

 

 

or maybe democrats dollars (he did get like 49% of their votes).

 

you really need to get over this idea that the Republicans sabatoge the Democrats campaings by donating money to the evil Ralph Nader and Joe Leiberman.

[KipWellsFan]

or maybe democrats dollars (he did get like 49% of their votes).

 

you really need to get over this idea that the Republicans sabatoge the Democrats campaings by donating money to the evil Ralph Nader and Joe Leiberman.

 

Karl Rove, a close advisor to the President, has expressed interest in assisting Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman in retaining his seat, despite a loss in the Democratic Primary last night, ABC News has reported.

 

Rove was, according to the report, acting on behalf of President Bush.

 

George Stephanopoulos, writing for the World Newser blog at ABC, wrote that a Lieberman aide had shared with the news agency a message from the White House: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do.

 

full story

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/REport_K...Bushs_0809.html

[Rex Kickass]

The only way Lieberman gets serious support from the GOP is if he agrees to caucus with the GOP in 2007 - That takes the GOP from looking at potentially a 49-50-1 scenario to a 50-49-1 scenario if Lamont doesn't win.

 

Lieberman spent three times the cash that Lamont did. And fell short. Momentum is with Lamont, and the longer Lieberman calls a primary battle "partisan politics" the more he'll look like a sore loser.

[EvilMonkey]

There's also the wild card of course of any charges coming out of the alleged "Website hacking", whether they wind up being directed at someone in Lieberman's campaign, Lamont's campaign, or someone outside of both. Supposedly there are outfits on the ground right now doing polling on the general, once a few of those hit we'll at least have a better idea of where the starting gate is.

Another wild card will be whether his new 'friends' help or hurt his chances. There are many voters instantly turned off by these two.

 

[Balta1701]

Another wild card will be whether his new 'friends' help or hurt his chances. There are many voters instantly turned off by these two.

Yeah, I can't stand Lamont's kids either.

[EvilMonkey]

Yeah, I can't stand Lamont's kids either.

NEW friends. Unless he has been an absent father or just discovered that the kid is his, you know the two I am talking about.

[Balta1701]

NEW friends. Unless he has been an absent father or just discovered that the kid is his, you know the two I am talking about.

Just trying to have some fun.

 

Anyway...probably worth noting that Lieberman has fired his entire campaign staff. So he's literally starting over from scratch.

[Rex Kickass]

CBS Exit poll results. Primary voters only.

 

Who will you vote for in November?

Ned Lamont (DEM) 49

Joe Lieberman (IND) 36

Alan Schlesinger (REP) 0

Someone else 1

Not Sure 12

Won't vote 1

[kapkomet]

ANy candidate that has the reeeeeeeeeeeeeeverends behind him on primary night should have his head examined.

[southsider2k5]

Lieberman is going to lose a ton of democratic party support with the Lamont win. Pretty much he is going to have to find a lot of non-Democratic money and support in order to win. Personally I see his taking this late, and then dropping out and throwing his support to Lamont when he realizes he can't win.

[kapkomet]

See, I don't know. Out of the Dems eligible to vote, about 40% showed up in CT, and 51% of those voted for Lamont. So, that means 16% (or however the math works out, whatever, you'll get my point) voted to remove Joementum from office. It was a smaller percentage then anyone wants us to see, let's put it that way. This is *HUGE* to all the Dems and liberal media because it's a "referendum on George Bush". GET THE f*** OFF OF THAT. It is NOT. But they sure want us to believe it.

[Balta1701]

CBS Exit poll results. Primary voters only.

Exit polls would have been taken before people knew who actually won and before Lieberman's "Sore Loserman" speech that night. So as far as I'm concerned, until I see something actually taken on the ground, all previous polls are meaningless.

 

See, I don't know. Out of the Dems eligible to vote, about 40% showed up in CT, and 51% of those voted for Lamont. So, that means 16% (or however the math works out, whatever, you'll get my point) voted to remove Joementum from office. It was a smaller percentage then anyone wants us to see, let's put it that way. This is *HUGE* to all the Dems and liberal media because it's a "referendum on George Bush". GET THE f*** OFF OF THAT. It is NOT. But they sure want us to believe it.

And all of the Republicans want us to believe it was a Democratic purge, that the Democrats are lurching to the left of the party uncontrollably and they're going to embarass themselves for the next decade. Each side is going to come up with its own narrative, and is going to ignore everything else factual in order to fit things into that narrative.

 

I'm just happy that he won't be able to go on Fox News on a panel of 2 Republicans and Lieberman and allow them to claim balance by having a Democrat there any more.

 

ANy candidate that has the reeeeeeeeeeeeeeverends behind him on primary night should have his head examined.

Well, at least in this primary, there was a specific reason to involve them; his opponent had the man casually referred to in some circles as the "First Black President" campaigning for him, and at least in the primary, there was a non-trivial African American voting block, so they were there to help counteract the Big Dog's influence.

[kapkomet]

Well, at least in this primary, there was a specific reason to involve them; his opponent had the man casually referred to in some circles as the "First Black President" campaigning for him, and at least in the primary, there was a non-trivial African American voting block, so they were there to help counteract the Big Dog's influence.

Bull. Absolutely bull.

[WCSox]

See, I don't know. Out of the Dems eligible to vote, about 40% showed up in CT, and 51% of those voted for Lamont. So, that means 16% (or however the math works out, whatever, you'll get my point) voted to remove Joementum from office. It was a smaller percentage then anyone wants us to see, let's put it that way. This is *HUGE* to all the Dems and liberal media because it's a "referendum on George Bush". GET THE f*** OFF OF THAT. It is NOT. But they sure want us to believe it.

 

My (mostly Republican) wife's family lives in CT and most of them have historically voted for Lieberman. It'll be interesting to see how many Republicans (and conservative Dems) vote for him as an Independent in the general election. While the primary results clearly show strong support for Lamont among Dems, 51% of 40% of that party's (registered) opinion doesn't really mean much in the big picture.

[Rex Kickass]

I love how people are discounting record turnout in an August primary.

 

40% is an amazing turnout number for a primary.

 

The Virginia Primary turnout number was something like one-tenth that.

[kapkomet]

I love how people are discounting record turnout in an August primary.

 

40% is an amazing turnout number for a primary.

 

The Virginia Primary turnout number was something like one-tenth that.

I'm not discounting it, but I'm not playing it up like you seem to be, either. I know this is more your fortee then mine, but I think elements of this are overblown, on both sides.

[WCSox]

I love how people are discounting record turnout in an August primary.

 

40% is an amazing turnout number for a primary.

 

The Virginia Primary turnout number was something like one-tenth that.

 

Yep, the twenty-something bloggers sure did a great job of mobilizing their party in the primary. But that doesn't translate into winning an election against a popular incumbent who still has a lot of support... not even close. In fact, it's fathomable that Lieberman may end up splitting the Democratic vote.

[Rex Kickass]

All politics are local. The New Haven Register.

 

oe Lieberman should accept the results of his party's primary

 

He should reconsider his bid to run as an independent candidate and get out of the race.

 

For an 18-year-incumbent who was the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential candidate, his margin of defeat to Ned Lamont, a political unknown until a few months ago, was significant. Lamont even carried Lieberman's home town of New Haven.

 

Lieberman says he is still a Democrat, but his campaign will divide the party that rejected him.

 

As an independent candidate, he can only hope to win if he holds onto a significant percentage of those Democrats who voted for him in the primary, and picks up sizeable votes from both independents and Republicans.

 

Somehow, the irony of a general election strategy that relies on Republican votes to win seems to have eluded a politician who touted his Democratic credentials during the campaign. It merely supports Lamont supporters' charge that Lieberman is a closet Republican.

 

By running as a third-party candidate, Lieberman has left himself open to the charge that he is not only a spoiler but that he cares more about himself than the party to which he still claims allegiance.

 

The primary vote should have told Lieberman that he was out of touch with the state that he had taken too much for granted. Until almost the closing days of the election, he seemed unable to gauge the deep anger of Democrats over the war in Iraq and his support for it.

[kapkomet]

Something that keeps being missed, is this is Conn. we are talking about. Of COURSE they are against the war. Of COURSE they are more left then the rest of the country by and large. And that was Joe's constituency. That's the bottom line of all of this. Personally, I think CT's viewpoints on things are wrong, but it's their right to be wrong.

[Rex Kickass]

Personally, I think that the biggest part of this election had nothing to do with the Iraq war. It had everything to do with Lieberman not listening to his constituents.

 

That's why every incumbent loses. He becomes out of touch with the people he represents. All Lieberman had to do was listen and pay attention to his constituency. But he never did that.

[WCSox]

Joe Lieberman should accept the results of his party's primary

 

He should reconsider his bid to run as an independent candidate and get out of the race.

 

For an 18-year-incumbent who was the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential candidate, his margin of defeat to Ned Lamont, a political unknown until a few months ago, was significant. Lamont even carried Lieberman's home town of New Haven.

 

Lieberman says he is still a Democrat, but his campaign will divide the party that rejected him...

 

 

I find it funny that Lamont's liberal supporters are getting so bent out of shape about this. Lamont wins the Democratic primary, but they're so frightened of Lieberman's popularity among moderates and conservatives that they're actually asking him to quit. LOL!

 

By running as a third-party candidate, Lieberman has left himself open to the charge that he is not only a spoiler but that he cares more about himself than the party to which he still claims allegiance.

 

And his party have left themselves open to the charge that they've gone from the party of FDR to the party of Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi. Joe shouldn't be expected to rubber-stamp that shift and toe the party line.

 

As an independent candidate, he can only hope to win if he holds onto a significant percentage of those Democrats who voted for him in the primary, and picks up sizeable votes from both independents and Republicans.

 

I think that he can do both of these things. There are A LOT of moderates/independents/conservatives in CT that have voted for Lieberman in the past. On the flip side of that, Joe may actually split the conservative/independent/moderate vote and help Lamont win. It should be interesting to see what happens.

Edited August 10, 2006 by WCSox

[Balta1701]

I find it funny that Lamont's liberal supporters are getting so bent out of shape about this. Lamont wins the Democratic primary, but they're so frightened of Lieberman's popularity among moderates and conservatives that they're actually asking him to quit. LOL!

Actually, the paper that you're so quick to bash happens to be Lieberman's hometown paper, and it endorsed Lieberman over Lamont in the primary.

[KipWellsFan]

Americans don't vote for losers.

[kapkomet]

Americans don't vote for losers.

 

This is pure gold coming from you.