It is 2:30 am, and I am still blogging live from the New Haven Lamont HQ. It will be time to wake up here at around 5 a.m. People are still in the office working. Maybe I won't get any sleep tonight. It would be a small price to pay.
Before I type anything else, I would first like to say that I was completely wrong in reporting that Steve Rosenthal was up here working for Lieberman. That is just flat out not true, and I apologize to Steve for claiming as much.
More in the extended.
(New Haven office at 1:45 am-my leg is in the foreground)
I spent a long time over at Sullivan's tonight, and yes, there is a blogger conspiracy to defeat Joe Lieberman. It was like Yearly Kos over there--albeit with only 50 people--and I am not exaggerating much. I might as well just say that, because no matter what happens later today, Wednesday will be the worst day of press for the progressive netroots in years. If Lamont loses, we will be branded as ineffectual, irrelevant, extremist, and destructive. If Ned Lamont wins, we will be branded as powerful, relevant, extremist, and destructive. Both descriptions are inaccurate and unfair because this goes so far beyond the blogosphere, but if I have to choose I would much rather have the second one be the story. If we are going to get trashed and be forced to take credit for the fantastic work of others, I would at least like to get trashed as powerful and relevant. I do not know a single netroots leader that is not behind Ned Lamont in this campaign, but at the same time arguing hat we are driving this campaign is preposterous. Still, win or lose, the press will hit us with their hammerstroke, and as idiotic as that will be, that is also fine by me. Maybe we should not have spent so much time at Sullivan's while everyone else was working so hard.
Even apart from the narrative, the enormity of this election is starting to really settle in on me. This is probably the most watched senatorial primary in the history of the United States, and the progressive movement has been the main engine in making it such. If we win, the party and the country are changed, for the better, forever. If we lose, we may suffer irreparable damage to our movement and the right-wing of the party will become emboldened and enshrined for at least two more years. There is no middle ground, there are no moral victories. This is all in. Everything is on the line. We are the Dead Rabbits and the natives are standing on the other side of the square. Use the force--aim for the exhaust port. This is the opportunity of a generation (which, these days, seems to come every two years).
Returning to the media narrative, this campaign could have been a lesson to the establishment media that the progressive netroots are just a subset of the progressive movement, just as the progressive blogosphere is a subset of the progressive netroots. The progressive blogosphere is only about one-third of the progressive netroots, and the progressive netroots are only about on-third of the progressive movement (and the progressive movement has grown to about half the size of the Democratic Party).They could have learned about all of this, and they could have learned that the Internet side of the operation basically just functions as another department in the campaign, just like field, communications and political are departments within campaigns. They could have learned this, and learned how this movement is just itching to become a supplement to the Democratic Party and progressive politics as a whole, rather than against it. They could have learned this, but they would rather blame the downfall of the Democratic Party entirely upon a small handful of national bloggers who gather for drinks at Sullivan's. They could have learned this, but they did not. But you know what? That is fine. If they want to blame what happened here on a small group of people that includes me, that's fine. The blame certainly should not go to the candidate, the staff, or to the volunteers (who are not being paid $150 per day, ala the Lieberyouth). If things go wrong later today, and I seriously doubt that they will, I should be blamed. It probably was my fault in some way, and I should get blamed rather than anyone who actually works on this campaign. I can tell you right now, not a single person who staffs or volunteers here should ever be looked down upon by anyone in political campaigns, ever. This has been a masterpiece of political insurgency. It will be remembered for generations to come as just that.
I think we have a 90% chance of winning today. My personal prediction is Lamont by 4-4.5%. No matter what happens, August 8th, 2006, will be talked about for a long time to come. As long as the GOTV plan goes forward tomorrow without any major hitches, Ned Lamont will win this primary. W can deal with the idiocy of the establishment and the consequences of this victory on Wednesday. Right now, it is all in and we have pocket aces. I like our chances. Today we make history.
