If you listened to the liberal blogosphere, you'd think Ned Lamont was golden. True, he defeated Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator. But he is actually a political failure. With his defeat by Lieberman in the general election at the hands of an electorate unwilling to go as far to the left as Lamont and those who supported his primary battle, the wealthy Lamont is an ironic icon to the left, and symbol of the power of "people-powered media" or blogging, where most of his inertia originated.
Lamont hasn't entirely gone away. He showed up to endorse Hartford's Working Families Party candidates in their municipal election last year. The he went on the Hustings for Chris Dodd's ridiculous campaign for the White House. We know how well those efforts panned out.
Now Lamont has cast his lot with Barack Obama. He isn't the first Connecticut Democrat to do so. He was beat to the punch by State Representative William Tong, and Senate President Don Williams for starters. Silly and insignificant as those endorsements are for a presidential campaign, Lamont's is even less helpful. It may even be a liability.
He may carry a cache of Internet-addicted left wingers and socialists with him who can't let go of the defeat by Lieberman, but this crowd, as we have seen, does not a winner make.
If anything, it proves that Barack Obama's campaign may be far more to the left than many moderates may initially have believed. An endorsement by Lamont is a stamp of approval by the basest elements of the far-left Democratic establishment. Is this the "change" Obama champions?
3 comments:
I won't argue the larger point that you seem fairly intent on, but let me just clarify one point:
Mr. Lamont did indeed come to Hartford to stump for the Working Families slate for City Council -- and two out of three of our candidates won -- and won a fairly dramatic and historic victory over five endorsed republicans and a handful of well financed and popular independents.
I'm fairly sure the Ned Lamont seal of approval is no albatross, and Luis Cotto and Dr. Larry Deutsch on the Hartford City Council surely prove it.
-Joe Dinkin
CT Working Families
www.ct-workingfamilies.org
Joe,
It's certainly no albatross in Hartford. As for the rest of the civilized world, I think that's something else altogether.
What was interesting to me about the CWF endorsement was that no Democrats seemed to get upset about it. I found that fascinating because after Lieberman lost the nomination and ran anyway, he was criticized with not toeing the party line.
Was your slate actually running against Democrats? Or were you doing what most suspect... just trying to put other Democrats onto the Council under a different moniker, and exclude these Republicans and independents?
-- As if Harford didn't have enough problems.
So those Commies won? I was wondering about that.
Thats a pity. We had two of those Communists elected here in Windham. They took the minoriy seats away from Republicans.
They seem to have popular appeal but really these people are left wing nuts.
One of these people was a terrorist sympathier. These are not the populists people think they are voting for.
Castro must be proud to have so many followers in the USA.
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