Lieberman v Lamont
You know, something about Lieberman’s opening to his debate with Lamont — coupled with his “There you go again” comment, has me thinking.
I know George Bush. I have worked against George Bush.
I have even run against George Bush. But, Ned, I’m not George Bush.
Why not just run a political campaign where you use old political zingers? Next he should use Mondale’s “Where’s the Beef?”, which considering that one of his arguments is that Lamont is a one-note candidate without any substance, fits into his arsenal.
I imagine, fairly or unfairly, Schwarzenegger just repeating his catch-phrases in a campaign for governor. Be like him!
The subtext of the debate, for all the Lieberman haters, is that he was aggressive with Lamont where he wasn’t in his debate with Dick Cheney. The problem comes in that where you might have excused his debate performance with Cheney as simply showing his personality, that pin is pricked when Lieberman tried to throttle Lamont. So when Bush apparently whispered in Lieberman’s ear at that famous State of the Union kiss, “Thanks for your patriotism”, Lieberman’s definition of patriotism continues to be Bush’s, and we move on to that Wall Street Journal editorial and various utterances about how “we undermine Bush at our peril.” Lamont says that he stummered a bit at the start of the debate due to the fact that his preparation took a look at his Cheney debate, something I don’t quite understand seeing as Lieberman had already shown signs of what he was going to do with Lamont.
One other note is that I see a creeping in of an old Republican canard used by liberal Democrats: Sore Loserman. I expect and hope that travels around when he issues his signatures to get on the ballot the day after he loses the primary.