The shock defeat of Joe Lieberman

Joe Lieberman is a lifelong Democrat who has been a US Senator for Connecticut for 18 years. He was the running mate to Al Gore in the Presidential election of 2000 and he tried for the Democractic candidacy in the race of 2004. The news of his defeat in the Democratic primary to newcomer Ned Lamont is a shock that tells us several things:

  1. Opposition to the war in Iraq is stronger among Americans – at least many Democratic voters – than has sometimes been recognised and acknowledged.
  2. In a country where one can buy political advertising (you can’t in the UK), a rich guy can pack a punch if he is swimming with the tide of political opinion.
  3. The Net played a key role in Lamont’s campaign through the help of internet fundraising and anti-war bloggers – more information here.
  4. Lieberman is a poor loser because he now states that he will run for the Senate as an independent.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 9:58 am and is filed under World current affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.