The New Haven Register ran a strong editorial today telling Joe to get out of the race. A friend in CT, who told me about this editorial, also said that the print edition has a banner headline over the editorial in very large print... something he'd never seen before. The New Haven Register endorsed Lieberman in the primary -- they're over him now (registration required, by the way):
Lieberman says he is still a Democrat, but his campaign will divide the party that rejected him.The editorial goes on to adopt some of the Republican talking points about Lamont (only the Osama-loving liberals voted for him, apparently). But, that's even worse for Lieberman. Even a newspaper that apparently loathes Lamont is telling Lieberman to get out of dodge.
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.
