Disclaimer: I am a professional political research and strategy consultant. For the past 20 years. I am an outside-the-Beltway professional, thank God, and am the researcher Jerome and Markos quote in Crashing The Gate. Jerome and Markos invited me to the party (thanks guys, much appreciated), so Thursday night was literally the first time I've ever met or talked to Ned or anyone inside his campaign. I do not work for him or the campaign and no one, including Ned, asked me to post on this or anything else. They don't even know I'm posting this. The post is entirely motivated by my personal desire to provide the netrooots an inside, behind-the-scenes assessment of the guy who's taking Joementum on. I had the opportunity to find out, I took it and this post is my report to you.

I imagine most are familiar with the phrase `fire in the belly' when it comes to  candidates for public office. It's a shorthand way of saying a potential candidate has the gumption, the oomph, the stamina, the willpower, the fortitude, the guts to make the run and endure the endless campaigning, attacks, handshaking, baby-kissing, yadda, yadda. And while fire in the belly is a necessary component of a successful candidate's make-up, no question, it also has the element of a charging bull to it. A candidate with fire in the belly might, figuratively speaking, run into a brick wall. Repeatedly.

In my experience, though, fire in the belly is not the crucial aspect of candidate assessment. It's Fire In The Eyes, baby. Fire In The Eyes means a candidate is on a Mission. Yes, from God, as the Blues Brothers told us. Fire In The Eyes is about strategic smarts and `no mercy'. It means a candidate will see the kill shot in a campaign when it opens up and take it without hesitation. Fire In The Eyes means a candidate knows he/she is the `right thing to do' for voters in the election and the other(s) are not. It has elements of intensity, of justice, of understanding campaign reality and, most importantly, Fire In The Eyes combines the elements of: a) recognizing absolute and total political combat is coming with b) the determintion to prevail under any and all circumstances.

Ned Lamont has Fire In The Eyes, folks. I have no doubt whatsoever about this. He needs a little `spit polish' here and there, but he's ready and he's in it to win. We talked a lot about strategy, positioning and the political environment, the zeitgeist. I'm not going to go in great detail here because that gives too much information to Joementum and his flacks. However, Ned understands what he's up against and he understands better how to navigate and what to execute campaign-wise. He's beginning to see potential kill shots, he's locating them on his radar now, getting targeting coordinates. He knows he must be fearless, relentless. He's seeing the campaign from a more strategic and psychological view.

His messaging may take a turn, a good one, look for it. It will be about pressure, if it happens. Squeeeeezing Joementum. Ever increasing, unrelenting pressure. Merciless execution to draw out Joementum's `real self' for public display. "Tell the truth, Ned. Give the people the truth", I said to him. He's 10-4, roger wilco on that.

Anyway, that's my report to you, the netroots. As much as I can say publicly. This may, should, turn into a campaign the likes of which Connecticut has never seen. Let's hope so. I urge you to give this race the attention, the `lock-on', it deserves. And please give your support, in whatever way you can, and as much as you can, to Ned's campaign. He needs us and we can make the difference, not just with money, but with chatter, buzz, overt support, blog posts, letters to the editor, etc. We can help Ned greatly in creating the reality that Joementum's a goner, a loser suck-up to the extremist right-wing. You can start working with Ned right now, right here. Please do. 10-4, everybody, over and out.