The New Haven Register endorsed Joe for the primary, so they are no Ned Lamont partisans. But now they
want him out (username: dailykos, pw: dailykos).
Joe Lieberman should accept the results of his party's primary
He should reconsider his bid to run as an independent candidate and get out of the race.
For an 18-year-incumbent who was the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential candidate, his margin of defeat to Ned Lamont, a political unknown until a few months ago, was significant. Lamont even carried Lieberman's home town of New Haven.
Lieberman says he is still a Democrat, but his campaign will divide the party that rejected him.
As an independent candidate, he can only hope to win if he holds onto a significant percentage of those Democrats who voted for him in the primary, and picks up sizeable votes from both independents and Republicans.
Somehow, the irony of a general election strategy that relies on Republican votes to win seems to have eluded a politician who touted his Democratic credentials during the campaign. It merely supports Lamont supporters' charge that Lieberman is a closet Republican.
By running as a third-party candidate, Lieberman has left himself open to the charge that he is not only a spoiler but that he cares more about himself than the party to which he still claims allegiance.
The primary vote should have told Lieberman that he was out of touch with the state that he had taken too much for granted. Until almost the closing days of the election, he seemed unable to gauge the deep anger of Democrats over the war in Iraq and his support for it.
But never fear, Joe -- your DC media elite allies at the Washington Post still have your back. That little incestuous beltway world is still alive and well, no matter what the rabble outside the bubble might have to say about who represents them in DC.
Those choices should be made in Washington, and not in the rest of the country.