Centerfield

Lamont Pulling Away

This is starting to look like a no contest victory for Lamont. Polls have steadily moved in his favor and now this this death nail by Quinnipiac showing a 54-41 lead. Furthermore, with these type of poll numbers one must wonder if Lieberman's run as an independent will cease to exist. I am betting there will be pressure from those who campaigned for him in the primary to get out of the race if he loses, for the sake of party unity.

The only poll that matters is the one on election day, yadda yadda, but IMO it doesn't say much for the state of a political party when the word of a former President can't save a former Vice Presidential nominee. In the short term the ground swell of opposition to the Iraq War may help Democrats in 2006, in the long term the nutroots will cost the party of FDR the White House in 2008. Republicans should be kicking themselves for not running one of Connecticut's centrists such as Nancy Johnson, Rob Simmons, or Chris Shays.

If I were Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, or Mark Warner, I'd be wondering what this means for my 2008 prospects. If I were Al Gore, Russ Feingold, or John Edwards, I'd be feeling pretty confident right about now that my move to the left was the right thing to do to win the Democratic nomination. If I am a centrist or the average American, I would continue to question what the incentive is for supporting either of the two political parties.

UPDATE:

And even after all of this, Ned Lamont is smart enough to see the Daily Kos crowd for what they are and run away as fast as he can:

"Lamont brushed past reporters Wednesday night in Bridgeport, saying: 'I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them.'"

It is funny how your tune can change once you realize you are a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and the likely winner of the Democratic primary. Weren't those bloggers you know nothing about in your campaign commercials, Ned?