The State of the Lieberman Campaign

Tonight I got to attend the Jefferson Jackson Baily dinner in Hartford, CT. This was a huge meeting of CT dems, and had speeches by Senator Dodd, Lieberman, and Obama. There were only Democrats (I went with Diane Farrell’s CT-4 campaign), which included Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman, with their teams.

First, Senator Dodd had a fiery and excellent speech. He then introduced Joe Lieberman. Here is the amazing part. In a room full of Democrats, Joe Lieberman GOT BOOED when he took the stage. He had a dry speech that included everything but passion. He had to “shush” the crowd four times, but most people still talked amongst themselves. It was amazing, and I almost felt bad for him for a moment. Then I remembered his unrelenting support of a war that killed twice as many Americans as the occupancy in the room. Regardless, I was inspired by the support among influential Democrats. If any were Lamont supporters, you’d expect them to be closet supporters, hoping to keep the cash flow from Lieberman into their campaigns. But there was a vocal opposition to Joe Lieberman, and I was happy for it.

To close, Senator Obama showed us how to give a great speech. He spoke of the Democrat’s great history, and their current support for all that is holy (jobs, equality, social security, national security, health care, I’m preaching to the choir here). He included strong support for Lieberman, but I can’t expect a different reaction.

Moral of the story; the Lamont campaign is no fringe movement. This is a large movement that has support even from the rich and entrenched CT Democratic Party leaders.