Stoller has a hilarious
write-up on today's debate. It'll air tomorrow evening on C-SPAN, supposedly, but for now this is all we've got.
Schlesinger, again, stole the show. Lamont keeps getting better. And Lieberman is in trouble.
What has happened is that Joe Lieberman competed in a Democratic primary, lost, and is now competing in a Republican primary, and is losing again.
Schlesinger claims the money is streaming into his campaign now, and plans to air television ads. Lieberman's people have to be absolutely freaking out.
I found this Stoller observation to be quite interesting:
Alan Schlesinger is the first candidate I've seen who is genuinely tapping into the frustration grassroots conservatives feel with their party, because he's very clearly not supported by the establishment or even President Bush.
Schlesinger is kind of their version of Ned Lamont, a rebel detested by the establishment for shaking things up. Karl Rove and Bush want nothing more than to see Lieberman in the Senate. It's a win-win for them. Either 1) he flips and gives them the majority in a deadlocked Senate, or 2) he continues as a cancer inside the Democratic caucus, subverting it from within. Yet Schlesinger, sick and tired of the cynicism and rank dishonesty of the GOP establishment, is giving them the big middle finger. And these debates have given him the platform he needed to break through the Republican establishment's blockade of his candidacy.
I love the framing that "Lieberman lost the Democratic primary, now he's losing the Republican primary" because it happens to be true. Joe needs Republican voters. If Schlesinger picks up another 10 percent of support, gets into the 15-20 percent range, then Lieberman is toast.
But he can't out-Republican not just any Republican, but a rebel that speaks to conservative frustration with the modern-day GOP -- a Republican that is untainted by the current establishment.
So Schlesinger gets another debate to make his case and garner headlines. It'll be interesting to see how Lieberman responds. His current, "I've delivered lots of pork to the state" can't possibly keep his Republican base intact. Does he strike back at Schlesinger? If so, how?
And through all of this, Lamont can rise above the fray and continue to look "senatorial".
What a crazy-ass election...
Update: Reminder, the Q-poll coming tomorrow was taken BEFORE the debates, so they will not measure any movement from the debate. Hopefully, Q-poll took it as a pre-debate baseline, and will take a quick one after the third debate to measure movement. Otherwise, this will be the worst-timed poll of this election season.
Update II: A commenter digs up this quote from the MyDD thread:
How often do you get a three-way race in which the Democrat is supporting the Republican while fighting against the Democratic infrastructure, the Republican party is supporting the liberal New England Jew instead of the right-wing millionaire, and the Republican nominee is running against the Republican party?
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