Chuck Todd, blogging for the National Journal, had some very interesting things to say about Ned Lamont, and almost none of it was very good.
Todd says when Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the primary in August, Lieberman was down. He had lost the primary, he had lost his party, he had very little staff, and very little money. Instead of going for the kill, Lamont let Lieberman up from the canvas, and that could very well come back to haunt him in November.
Now, Lieberman is running as an Independent, he has wide support amongst Republicans and Independents, he has substantially cut into Lamont’s liberal base, he has the money, and the staff to win in November.
While the Iraq war is very unpopular in the state, some Connecicut voters are not connecting Lieberman with the war vote. Lamont has not carried much above the 40% mark in several polls, and his standing has very much stagnated in the last few weeks. Lamont has his liberal, anti-war supporters, but it’s going to take more than that to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The Hartford Courant poll found that only 15% of Lieberman supporters still could change their minds prior to election day, and that same number could still change their minds, and not vote for Lamont.
Chuck Todd still thinks Lamont could pull this off, but he also says it’s going to take some sort of serious gaffe on Lieberman’s part to do so. If Lamont goes down in Nove,ber, he will take a hard look back at the month of August, where he had Lieberman, battered, and on the ropes, but couldn’t put him away.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/todd.htm
Look down about halfway for the story.
