Reply #54: Some really good points made this morning

[whometense]

on Liberal Oasis. I recommend reading the whole post: http://www.liberaloasis.com/2006/08/use_the_issues.php

Here are a few highlights:

Lamont has just begun speaking to the non-primary constituency.

And he has shown his ability to dramatically turn poll numbers around through disciplined campaigning and a strong grassroots operation.

So this new poll does not mean that pessimism is in order.

But it does mean that the focus needs to be on winning over independent voters, not on getting Lieberman to drop out.

It was Lieberman who risked appearing undemocratic by thumbing his nose at the Democratic primary process.

He did it anyway, but after this poll, he got away with it. So we have to get over it.

To try to hound Lieberman out of the race will now be perceived as trying to undemocratically deny CT voters a full choice of candidates.

Furthermore, there's no way Lieberman will give up after getting 53% in a poll. It's a waste of time.

Similarly, hounding Washington Democrats to either support Lamont or to criticize Lieberman more vociferously is a waste of time.

CT voters did not vote for Lieberman because Bill Clinton showed up. And they won't care about what any out-of-state Senator has to say...