Lamont and Netroots Prevail over Lieberman's Politics

Tonight was a great night for the Netroots, as their top candidate this year, Ned Lamont, running for Senator in Connecticut, beat incumbent and once Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman. The impact of the Netroots in this race cannot be overstated. Two months ago Lamont was miles behind Lieberman in the polls. Tonight the numbers were far different.

As I write this these are the results for the Democratic Party Primary for Senate in Connecticut:

745 of 748 Precincts Reporting - 99.60%
Ned Lamont: 146,061 - 51.78
Joe Lieberman: 136,042 - 48.22

So Lamont wins the Primary by 3.5%, and Lieberman finishes out his term quietly, right?

Nope:

Lieberman: "In this campaign, we've just finished the first half, and the Lamont team is ahead. But in the second half, our team, Team Connecticut, is going to surge forward to victory...(cheers)"

"I am of course disappointed by the results, but not discouraged. The old politics of partisan polarization won today. For the sake of my party and my country, I cannot and will not let that result stand."

Ummm... which party exactly would that be? The Lieberman Party? The Independent Party? Certainly not the Democratic Party!

Reports indicate turnout was at 50%, which rivals a General election turnout, and which leads one to believe that tonight's vote was very representative of the will of the Democratic Party supporters tonight. Looking at how small the voting numbers were for the biggest GOP Primary, the U.S. House District 1 seat, with only a little over 3000 votes counted, I don't think there were too many Republican voters interfering with the Democratic selection. This was definitely the case of Democrats in Connecticut making their discontent of Lieberman known, and voting the bum out of office.

So what is the bum going to do? Run as an independent candidate, outside the Democratic Party, hoping that he can beat Lamont in November.

Yet in doing so there are only two ways that Lieberman can win:

1) Either he is able to turn voter sentiment around and convince all his Primary election supporters to vote for him as an Independent and therefore outside their party affiliation, while swaying Lamont supporters back his way.

2) Or he will have to rely on Republican voters to realize their own candidate will never win and that he is a better choice than Lamont.

The first option is a long shot, and he will have to fight a battle with Democratic supporters who will not be happy about his choice of running as an Independent.

The second option is the more likely scenario, but is the Republican support in Connecticut enough to push Lieberman over the top? That's highly debatable.

So "Sore Loserman", as many are now calling Joe Lieberman, really needs to reassess his decision, and quit campaigning. His running as an Independent is not "for the sake of my party and my country", it is all about Joe Leiberman and his hubris. The man lost; the man doesn't also have to be a loser - but I suspect he will be.