It's all over the Internet, of course, so this won't be news and I won't be the first to comment on it: Joe Lieberman lost in the Democratic primary, but promises to run as an "independent Democrat" in November.
Don't do it, Joe! Don't Nader the election! You, of all people, should know better. You, who but for Ralph Nader would be the Vice President of the US now, should know better.[1] The best thing you can do now for the Democratic Party, for the people of Connecticut, and for the sensible people throughout the US, is to forget your pride, accept the decision the Connecticut voters have made, and put your support behind Mr Lamont for November.
See also this NY Times op-ed piece, and this one.
In related news, Cynthia McKinney lost her primary bid to retain her seat in Congress, after her embarrassing and ridiculous incident with the US Capitol Police. Behave badly at your own risk....
[1] I'm not saying that Mr Nader was the only reason the Gore/Lieberman pair didn't make it in 2000; there was a complex array of factors and, in the end, they lost on a technicality and an intervention by the US Supreme Court. Changing any of those factors might have changed the result. But it's clear that if Mr Nader hadn't been in the race, the outcome would have been different.
2 comments:
Amen! Don't run, Joe. Incumbents aren't in there for life, and when the voters don't want you, you don't have the right to force yourself on them. I was glad to see the DSCC rethink its original, hasty view that they might support Lieberman: the primary winner is the party's candidate - or why have primaries?
(And that's a topic in itself, isn't it?)
It is, indeed, a topic in itself. Maybe some time I'll post an entry that says what I think about political parties: That they should provide a platform that candidates can align themselves with, as a shorthand way of stating what their views are. That they should not be entities that control the election process, as they are now.
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