Hear that? That’s the sound of the “anti-incumbent mood” becoming CW talking point #1 through November. The three primaries lost by incumbents tonight, in Connecticut, Michigan and Georgia had almost nothing at all to do with one another, but maybe that only reinforces the argument.
Also, here lies the end of the political media’s perception that the netroots haven’t won anything, although conservative bloggers will probably hold them to a win in November. That seems likely enough, if not in Connecticut, then also very possibly in Montana. Not getting a dozen unknown congressional candidates into the group of 435 over the last couple of years will fade from the public consciousness, and probably from the blogospheric one, as well. Of course, no blog can “win” an election — their contribution to GOTV efforts is not as notable as their contribution to the framing of political debates. And that much they’ve done.
I always get in trouble with predictions, but I don’t think Joe Lieberman is a lock for the fall — as the primarhy winner, Ned Lamont will be legitimized to non-primary voters, while Lieberman may indeed start to look like a Sore Loserman. Yes, some Republicans might cross over to support him in the fall — but wouldn’t this anticipation send more Democrats into the Lamont camp? If I was a lefty blogger, I’d say so. [Update: Already one has gone the other way, but I get the impression he wasn't old enough to be registered in Conn. when he lived there.]
The lights went out for another incumbent, Cynthia McKinney in Georgia, which wasn’t very surprising. The leftosphere didn’t want to claim her, while the rightosphere openly encouraged her opponent, Hank Johnson. That’s about what happened when Denise Majette bested McKinney in the primary four years ago, when conservative bloggers cheered on the anti-McKinney. Both Majette and Johnson campaigned as moderates, though Majette all but gave McKinney the seat back during her Katherine Harris-esque run for the Senate two years later.
And lastly, moderate Republican Joe Schwarz got bounced in Michigan. It’s a win for the reconfigured Club for Growth, and I suppose you could say the reconfigured Red State is already 1-0. Sorry, GOPProgress.
P.S. And about that picture… is that more this The Kiss or this The Kiss?
Actually, I was registered to vote in Connecticut during the 1999 fall elections and again from summer 2001 until fall 2004. (I was briefly registered in California when I started college at USC, and I cast my vote in the 2000 presidential primary & election in California… but, as a college student, I had the option of registering either my permanent home state or my temporary home state, and I decided to switch back CT after a couple of years in Cali - I just cared more about CT politics, and felt it was really my “home.” I stayed a CT voter until it would no longer have been legitimate for me to do so, as when I started law school CT ceased to be my “permanent” home in any meaningful way… so by the time November ‘04 rolled around, I was an Indiana voter (I’m a law student at Notre Dame). However, I did vote in the Connecticut presidential primary (absentee) in ‘04. Much to my retrospective chagrin, I voted for Edwards, not Lieberman; Joe had dropped out of the race by that point, and I wanted to cast a vote for “anybody but Kerry” — I wish now that I had voted for Lieberman, even though he had dropped out, because he was still the ballot, and I would have been proud to be able to say “I voted for Joe Lieberman for president.” Oh well.