Yet more on the Martyrdom of Joe.
TPM Readers from St. Louis and Washington, DC sent us word this evening that this ad had appeared in the Jewish weekly in their respective cities. And it’s apparently part of a nationwide ad campaign. As you can see, it’s an ad from the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The appeal to tribalism, I guess, doesn’t require a great deal of explanation. But what put a smile on my face when I saw this thing was what I can only call the ad’s vaguely christological theme. See, even Joe’s sad about his martyrdom. And there’s the lady in the background on the left having what I guess is a beatific vision.
Anyway, the Joe cult aside, I’m more and more getting the sense that Ned Lamont just didn’t get, coming off last Tuesday’s win, that he was still very much the underdog and had maybe a week to thoroughly dispatch Joe from the race. But he didn’t. From what I can tell he went on vacation to Maine right after the primary. And he was scarce for like a week after the primary.
Lieberman, on the hand, went basically beserk right after the vote, which of course he had to do, to make absolutely sure that everyone realized that, as far as he was concerned, his primary loss meant nothing more than a difference in the way he’d be identified on the ballot in November. He was still the senator, still running for reelection. News of his demise had been greatly exaggerated, and so forth.
This morning an insider friend of mine, who’s strongly for Lamont, argued that the 53% to 41% lead Lieberman had in the new Q-poll was deceptive since Joe’s support was soft (due in part to being buoyed by an influx of Republicans) and Lamont’s was solid. I haven’t had a chance to look closely at the internals on that poll. So I can’t address the points specifically yet. But I wouldn’t find that too comforting from the Lamont perspective.
Lieberman’s the incumbent. He’s polling over 50% — at least in this sounding. And the issue terrain has to be better for him going forward (where the battleground is Independents) than it was during the Democratic primary (in which he and Lamont were battling over Democrats).
I’m certainly not saying this is over. I think the tide of the election cycle will further crystallize and galvanize not only opposition to the war but loss of patience with those who’ve been in denial about the scale of the disaster. But I think Lieberman had a pretty decent week.
