Lieberman loses, Netroots Win?
The left side of the American blogosphere will be cracking open a few bottle of organic champagn and basking in the glory of defeating three term Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman in tonight’s Connecticut Democratic primary. Ned Lamont, to the manor born, will be sipping something a tad more vintage and being amazed at the power of insurgency.
For koskids and MyDDers and Firedoglake fans this is the first win in what they hope will be a reconfiguration of first the Democratic Party and, with a bit of a push, American post Bush politics. And they may very well be right; but I doubt it.
There is every chance that Lieberman will run as an independent with Republican backing. And if he does there is a very strong chance that he will be elected. After all, a primary is a perfect place for left liberal insurgents simply because it is an all Democratic affair. General elections are a whole other story.
More importantly, Republicans and moderate Democrats are going to be energized by the Lamont win. The history of single issue candidates - and Lamont was a 99% pure anti-war candidate - is pretty much a litany of defeat.
The tealeaves are going to be read regarding the chances of a “progressive” insurgency in the Democratic Presidential season. Something on the lines of “Dean was onto something.” there are few things which will save the Republican Party from the consequences of an increasingly unpopular war; but a George McGovern or Eugene McCarthy style campaign from the Democrats would make Rudy look awfully good in 2008.
Update: Captain Ed sees the tealeaves in much the same way:
As I posted earlier, this is the nightmare scenario for the Democrats. An outright Lieberman victory or a real butt-kicking by Lamont would have settled Connecticut, allowing the party and the media to focus on other, more important races.
captains quarters
Written by jay on August 9th, 2006 with
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