It's good to be the
The Lieberman campaign was a disaster from start to finish. I say was, because he fired his campaign staff. Now, he's got his man servant Dan Gerstein with him and wants to start over with help from his friends the Republicans.
Lieberman's campaign staff had two under 30's as their public face, Sean Smith, who should be working at Best Buy soon, and Marion Steinfels, who went to some backwoods hick college and is working at her first real job. I'm sure they questioned Lieberman and helped him set his priorities.
When you look at a campaign staff of an 18 year senator and see two people who wouldn't be trusted with a sneaker account, you have to wonder what the deal is.
And it's this: he doesn't want to take advice. It's the same reason rich old men date models, they are in so awe of you, they do what they're told.
Gerstein, who is a race and religion bating liar, is a boil on Democratic party politics and needs to never find work in it again. This lying fuck claimed Lieberman's critics were anti-semites, even the Jews. He wasn't even honest in his role in the campaign.
But where did Lieberman go wrong?
1) He let his base be ignored for the bright lights of the Beltway. Instead of helping the small towns and doing constituent service, he acted as if that was Chris Dodd's job. That makes enemies and it lost him small town Connectitcut. You cannot do that. Alone, that's a reason to lose your job. It has caused Rick Santorum no small set of problems in his reelection bid.
2) Completely mishandled dealing with Lamont. On one hand, he was scared of him, on the other, didn't take him seriously until he was humiliated at the convention. The Lamont people were stunned that he got 33 percent of the vote. Then he race baited and lied about him in a scurrilous manner. He acted offended that someone would challenge him for his seat.
3) Refused to deal with Iraq. That is the issue of the day, and he wanted to walk around it like it didn't matter. Idiots, like the editorial page writers of the Daily News, thought the 48 percent he got was an endorsement of the war, it wasn't. Lieberman had union support and other reasons people voted for him, but not the war. He ran from his position on the war and it was an insult to the intelligence of most people.
4) His constant baiting of Lamont was driven by personal animus and not common sense. Lamont is not someone you bait, because you look like a petty asshole. And to call someone who volunteered to teach in Bridgeport, the ass end of the state, a racist, is the kind of stupid you read about in bomb plots. So what if he's a member of a country club? He comes from an old
WASP family. It didn't matter to black voters. Nor did his tiny amount of Wal Mart stock. This isn't the 1960's. We don't freak out over little things. We remember big things like refusing to support affirmative action. It's 2006, we know the difference between rich and racist. And it seems the racists are coming out of the woodwork for Joe.
5) The one way to look like a craven weakling is to have the opposition praise you. Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly and the rest of the clown squad endorsed Lieberman , which said to Democrats, if he's on their side, he's not on yours. It's a no brainer, really, but it never occured to Lieberman that it might be a problem. His post-defeat descent into bitterness proves this. He has no idea that good Democrats are not buddies with the likes of Hannity.
6) His electoral strategy was fine in 1988, but it isn't fine today. Relying on black voters to support you, calling them "low information voters", and then going to churches to get them is not the way it works now. The Lamont campaign reached out beyond the church and got to the persuaders and the local influencers, put them on their street teams and got them in places Lieberman's paid people could not go.
Buying Chaka Fatah's Philly people is not the same, it isn't even close. They don't know the area or the people and it's just another warm body.
7) His online strategy...............................Bwaaaaaahhhhhhh. What online strategy? Bargain basement webhosting? In a Senatorial election? But more on that later.
8) His reliance on Bill Clinton and minor black politicians to help him in the face of Sharpton, Jackson and Waters. What Lamont was told, and followed, was that if the race came down to black voters, and it did, Lamont would need their help far more than any problems it would cause down the road. And once they were by his side, two things would happen, whites would try to race bait Sharpton, which is reverse kyrptonite with black voters, and it would forcefully rebut any charge of racism on Lamont's part.
9) His independent bid. Not only does it reek of a royal attitude, it sends a message that he can't be trusted either. Sore Loserman indeed.
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