Thursday, August 17, 2006

CT-Sen: Time for Lamont to focus on the job at hand

The latest Quinnipiac poll has Joe Lieberman taking a double-digit lead in his re-election race.  This would explain why, to the consternation of many Democrats, Lieberman is not dropping out of the race.  He can win.


U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a three-term Democrat now running as an independent candidate, leads the man who beat him in last week's primary vote by 12 points in a three-way race, a poll released on Thursday shows.


The latest Quinnipiac University poll, conducted between August 10-14, shows Lieberman leads Democrat Ned Lamont, a wealthy businessman with little political experience who has played on anti-war sentiment, by 53 percent to 41 percent among likely voters in November's election. The Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger drew 4 percent, the poll shows.

I think it's great that Ned Lamont has achieved rock-star status in the wake of his primary victory, but it is important to remember that that's all it was.  A primary victory.  In other words, it was not final.  It was primary.


Yesterday, there was a Recommended diary on Kos touting the fact that Ned was headed to Vermont for a fundraiser.  I commented that it would be better for Ned to remain in Connecticut and focus on winning his race for senate.  My point was that the race is not over by a long shot.  The suggestion was dismissed.


But, the evidence bears me out.  The race for Connecticut senate is not over.  Fundraisers in Vermont are a distraction from what Ned Lamont is supposed to be doing, which is winning the Connecticut senate race.


Joe Lieberman is running to win.  Ned Lamont must focus on beating him.

2 comments:

billie said...

if you take a close look at the gop guy- you'll see why he isn't even worthy of an endorsment.

UncommonSense said...

Oh, Schlessinger is a loser. I agree. However, he is not the point. This is about Joe Lieberman versus Ned Lamont.

My concern about Lamont is that, from where I sit in Baton Rouge, he appears to be taking a victory lap even before the race is over. He is being celebrated in a manner that he shouldn't be, considering the fact that Joe Lieberman is still very much in this race. After all, Lamont's primary victory was by no means a blowout. Progressives almost seem to be forgetting this.

This senate seat is all Joe Lieberman has. He is going to fight like a wild animal to keep it.

Certainly, the progressive grassroots and netroots across the country are justified in their enthusiasm. But, at the end of the day, the Connecticut senate race has nothing to do with us. Lamont needs to make sure that voters in Connecticut understand that this is all about them. He will win this race or lose it on those terms.