TPM Reader JZ on the Blumenthal story …
I think this is devastating for Blumenthal and I’ll explain why. I moved to Ct. three years ago and over time heard about Blumenthal. He was popular, but aside from some of the cases he brought, most people I knew couldn’t say much of anything about him. He was largely inscrutable (if prominent local papers thought he served in Vietnam, then he’s clearly not all that well known).
Even as a senate candidate, he didn’t come into focus much. I heard about some really poor performances and a disastrous Times interview. There was concern he was running a terrible campaign. Into this comes the Times article. Now we hear he explicitly and less explicitly claimed to have served in Vietnam (and as captain of the Harvard swim team). For a lot of voters, this story, which will travel like a game of telephone, will be the first concrete stuff they’ve learned about Blumenthal’s character. His slightly plastic appearance will now look fake; his remoteness will come off as shady. I just don’t think he has the political base or skills to overcome this if it isn’t nipped in the bud today. So I’m not ready to call him dead as a politician, but if I have no doubt all viable Dems were getting late phone calls last night from power brokers asking if they’d step in if things got any worse.
Meanwhile, Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent convincingly explains why Blumenthal’s loss is Rob Simmons’ gain.
