August 16, 2006

Connecticut Do-Over Will Show Who’s Really Mainstream

Beating your opponent – then having to turn around and beat him again – is frustrating enough. But the biggest problem for Ned Lamont may be how thoroughly he’s convinced himself that everyone agrees with him.

The new Democratic U.S. Senate nominee from Connecticut must feel like he just won the last game of the regular season, only to find that he has to face his supposedly vanquished opponent again next week in the first round of the playoffs. In other words, his “win” means nothing.

Now-independent candidate Joe Lieberman is not going away. The state’s senior senator, stripped of his party’s endorsement but not of his incumbency, is going to make Lamont beat him again if he wants to take his seat. And this time the votes of anti-war moonbats won’t be enough to get the job done.

Unless – as Lamont and much of the left-wing community these days insist – they are not moonbats at all but, in fact, the “mainstream.” To the extent that the general electorate of Connecticut can represent the national mainstream, this race should indeed be illustrative of just where America is.

Feeling his oats after his Democratic primary win, Lamont announced that the anti-war, withdraw-from-Iraq crowd actually represents the views of most Americans. The proof, he believes, is not just his victory but the polls on the issue, which show that Americans want the troops home and don’t care for Bush’s handling of the matter.

A cursory look at the polls – the kind of look Lamont and his supporters favor – seems to bear him out. Just after the death of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, USA Today and CNN polls showed that, respectively, 53 percent and 57 percent favor a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq. Just last week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 59 percent thought the war had not been worth the cost, and 64 percent believe the Bush administration has no clear plan for victory. The same poll showed that only 36 percent approve of Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq, while 63 percent disapprove.

How can you argue with those numbers?

Actually, you don’t have to. The Democrats already in Congress do the job nicely, every time they are asked to endorse such positions. John Kerry is still smarting from the latest such incident. Not content to lose the presidency, Kerry decided earlier in the summer to sponsor a resolution calling for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of the year. The Senate’s vote on Kerry’s resolution generated a whopping six votes in favor. Six votes! That leaves 39 Democrats who wouldn’t touch Kerry’s surrender proposal with a 10-foot pole.

It seems not much has changed since the House voted on Jack Murtha’s demand for “immediate redeployment,” which was supported by just four members, and not even by Murtha himself, who voted against his own idea and then attacked the House leadership for having the vote in the first place. Apparently it’s OK to call for troop withdrawal on Meet the Press, but not when it actually becomes part of your voting record.

But wait. The polls! They say that Americans want out of Iraq and oppose Bush’s policies! So why aren’t Democrats falling all over themselves to endorse these positions?

Probably because they know two things. First, they know about polls. Ask people if they want the troops home, they’ll say yes. Ask people if they’d like free health care, they’ll say yes. You could probably get a majority of Americans to favor the execution of Barry Manilow if you worded the question just so. See? People agree with our proposals!

Fine. Actually try to implement them, however, and people find out what the consequences of the policies would be.

The other thing Democrats understand is the extent to which their own hyperbole, with plenty of help from the mainstream media, has driven down the public’s support of the war. Playing up every car bombing. Diminishing the establishment of democratic institutions in Iraq. Convincing people of the Iraq-has-nothing-to-do-with-terrorism trope. This has all worked beautifully for Democrats to the extent that their objective is to influence poll numbers. But none of it changes the fact that America does need to succeed there, and pulling up stakes doesn’t lead to success.

The “mainstream” wants victory today and the immediate return of our heroes. I’ll sign up for that too. But experienced, sane Democrats also know what would happen if you worded the poll as follows:

“Which statement comes closest to your view? A) I want the troops to return from Iraq as soon as possible, regardless of what happens in Iraq as a result of their withdrawal; B) I want the troops to return from Iraq as soon as possible, but success in the mission is the highest priority.”

Ned Lamont chooses A. The guess here is that the real mainstream chooses B. Connecticut, let’s have another campaign!

This is Column # DC46.  Request permission to publish here.