This was the week that Joe Lieberman lost his primary battle to Ned Lamont in Connecticut. If that race had any repercussions at all on 2008, they were not lost on media commentators.
Writing before the primary, Dan Balz of the Washington Post - here picked up by the Deseret News in Utah - said that a Lamont victory would "confirm the growing strength of the grass-roots and Internet activists who emerged in Howard Dean's presidential campaign" and would, in turn, "affect the political calculations of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton." Indeed, Balz continues, "any Democrat hoping to play on the 2008 stage would need to reckon with the implications of Lieberman's repudiation." Hillary-watchers were "watching the Connecticut race intently to see whether an anti-war victory could spell trouble for any 2008 White House plans she might have," concurred the New York Daily News. Brendan Miniter in the Wall Street Journal noted the distance that prospective presidential candidates were already placing between themselves and Lieberman, even before the primary. "None of those expected to make a bid for their party's 2008 presidential nomination showed up in the Nutmeg State to stump for the beleaguered senator. John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack, Bill Richardson--all steered clear."
Barry Casselman in the Washington Times wrote that for other national Democrats to offer their whole-hearted support to Lamont were he to win the primary would "send a message to the country that the radical left had hijacked the Democratic Party." "It would make it very difficult for Sens. Clinton, Biden, Bayh, et al, to continue their candidacies for president in 2008 without appearing to be puppets and sycophants," Casselman argues.
The Hartford Courant, picked up by Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR-13, looks at the impact of a Lamont victory on centrist Senator Evan Bayh. The signals are mixed. Bayh "voted for the war and ... has argued in the past for staying the course," the Courant notes. "You don't have to say get out tomorrow, but you're going to have to be much more critical and much more aggressive in pushing thisadministration on a strategy to get out of Iraq," was the view of Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future, commenting on the message from Connecticut. But the Courant posited another viewpoint: "if Clinton were to move more to the left on the war, that leaves Bayh more room in the middle as an alternative."
No such dilemma for John Edwards who has been busy positioning himself as an anti-war candidate. AP in the Boston Globe reported that Edwards called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq to begin straight away, with the immediate recall of 40,000 combat troops as the first step.
With primary defeat coming to Lieberman on the 8th, some commentators suggested that the first impact on 2008 would be felt by... Joe Lieberman. Dick Polman at the Philadelphia Inquirer quotes William Kristol as asking: "Is it too fanciful to speculate about a 2008 GOP ticket of McCain-Lieberman, or Giuliani-Lieberman, or Romney-Lieberman, or Allen-Lieberman, or Gingrich-Lieberman?"
Criticising Lieberman for running as an independent, rather than bowing out and supporting Ned Lamont, the Concord Monitor noted that even Connecticut colleague, and potential 2008 contender, Chris Dodd had "deserted him." Bill Richardson "became the first prominent national Democrat to call on Sen. Joe Lieberman to drop his independent bid for re-election," according to CNN. Wesley Clark urged his supporters to sign a petition calling for Lieberman to drop out of the race, said USA Today. Also quick to announce that they would be supporting Ned Lamont, CNN reported, were Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. AP, in the Duluth News Tribune, also reported that Russ Feingold's PAC was giving $5,000 to Lamont's campaign.
A Siena College poll suggested that Hillary was continuing to maintain strong leads over other Democrats running for the Oval Office in 2008, but in New York was trailing the two leading Republicans. An AP story in Fox News reported that Rudy Giuliani led Hillary by 48 percent to 42, while John McCain had a 46-42 lead.
Elsewhere, George Pataki headed off to New Hampshire, drawing as he did a rather gratuitous attack from Hillary Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson. "He's clearly running for president," Wolfson said, in this AP story on Washington DC ABC affiliate WJLA-7. "It's unfortunate because he is the only one who takes his candidacy seriously." In which case, why waste your breath attacking him? Pataki followed up his visit by launching a series of energy policy proposals, centred on "tax credits for fuel-efficient cars and development of alternative fuels," according to AP on ABC News.
The Washington Post picked up on a minor storm brewing over George Allen's ownership of shares in Barr Laboratories Inc, a pharmaceutical company that makes 'Plan B', or the 'morning after pill'. Pro-life campaigners argue that 'Plan B' is a form of abortion, and have therefore criticised Allen - who has a perfect voting track record from a pro-life point of view - for his Barr stock holding. Allen refused to sell the Barr stock, noting, amongst other things, that Barr was an important employer in southern Virginia.
Allen did receive some high profile help with fundraising for his Senate re-election campaign, including from some prospective presidential rivals. Norfolk's WVEC-13 has an AP story reporting that both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani would appear at fundraisers for Allen towards the end of August. President Bush would be the start attraction at a third Allen fundraising event.
John Edwards was one of several likely presidential candidates in Iowa for the state fair, but AP in the Myrtle Beach Sun News reports that Edwards was doing more than shaking hands and sampling the local cuisine. Repeating the tactic that worked so well for him in Iowa in 2004, Edwards is "campaigning with and raising money for county-level political organizations, and with local candidates not used to the political limelight," AP says. "Many other candidates mirror that tactic, but Edwards outpaces them in intensity and the number of times he has traveled to the state." George Pataki brought his own joy to the state fair, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, by focusing on the war "between civilisation and barbarians" that the US was engaged in. Newt Gingrich, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Bill Frist, John McCain and, of course, Tom Vilsack all also made stops at the fair, according to the Des Moines Register. For Biden, the state fair was his first trip to Iowa since declaring his 2008 intentions and just part of fifteen days he would spend in Iowa in August. As the Wilmington News Journal reminds us, it was at the Iowa State Fair in 1987 that Biden made his famous speech, plagiarising from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, that forced him out of the 1988 presidential campaign.
Pataki's comments were a response to the foiled terrorist plot here in the UK to blow up some airliners, which also triggered a little spat between John Kerry and Mitt Romney. Kerry insisted that America's engagement in Iraq was distracting it from the more important war on terror. "Afghanistan and Pakistan are where the fight against Al Qaeda is, not in Iraq," Kerry said, according to the Boston Globe. Romney responded by arguing that Iraq was, in fact, one of the fronts in the war against terrorism. "I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of the kind of enemy that we're facing," Romney said of Kerry's remarks.
CBS2 of Chicago reports on the reception that Barack Obama got when he went to the Windy City to speak to the AFSCME convention there. "I think he should run for president," said convention delegate Henry Bayer. "I think that he could be the next president of the United States and I think that he would be if he would run." Adding a tantalising new twist to the Obama story, CBS2 claims that "sources close to Obama have told CBS 2 News that Obama would reconsider his previously announced decision to skip the 2008 presidential contest only if Mrs. Clinton does not run." OK, admittedly not a likely scenario, but interesting to speculate on.
Hillary herself also received a warm welcome at the same convention the next day, where, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, she launched a strong attack on oil company BP, whose pipeline in Alaska had just sprung a leak.
Mike Huckabee visited New Hampshire, where he played the guitar and talked about healthcare reform, the Portsmouth Herald reported.
And finally, AP in the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports on the unveiling of "The Presidential Bust of Hillary Clinton" - 'bust' being the operative word. The bust - the work of sculptor Daniel Edwards - shows the Senator displaying substantial cleavage, and has gone on display in Manhattan's Museum of Sex. "She has not commented on the bust," AP says.
Writing before the primary, Dan Balz of the Washington Post - here picked up by the Deseret News in Utah - said that a Lamont victory would "confirm the growing strength of the grass-roots and Internet activists who emerged in Howard Dean's presidential campaign" and would, in turn, "affect the political calculations of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton." Indeed, Balz continues, "any Democrat hoping to play on the 2008 stage would need to reckon with the implications of Lieberman's repudiation." Hillary-watchers were "watching the Connecticut race intently to see whether an anti-war victory could spell trouble for any 2008 White House plans she might have," concurred the New York Daily News. Brendan Miniter in the Wall Street Journal noted the distance that prospective presidential candidates were already placing between themselves and Lieberman, even before the primary. "None of those expected to make a bid for their party's 2008 presidential nomination showed up in the Nutmeg State to stump for the beleaguered senator. John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack, Bill Richardson--all steered clear."
Barry Casselman in the Washington Times wrote that for other national Democrats to offer their whole-hearted support to Lamont were he to win the primary would "send a message to the country that the radical left had hijacked the Democratic Party." "It would make it very difficult for Sens. Clinton, Biden, Bayh, et al, to continue their candidacies for president in 2008 without appearing to be puppets and sycophants," Casselman argues.
The Hartford Courant, picked up by Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR-13, looks at the impact of a Lamont victory on centrist Senator Evan Bayh. The signals are mixed. Bayh "voted for the war and ... has argued in the past for staying the course," the Courant notes. "You don't have to say get out tomorrow, but you're going to have to be much more critical and much more aggressive in pushing thisadministration on a strategy to get out of Iraq," was the view of Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future, commenting on the message from Connecticut. But the Courant posited another viewpoint: "if Clinton were to move more to the left on the war, that leaves Bayh more room in the middle as an alternative."
No such dilemma for John Edwards who has been busy positioning himself as an anti-war candidate. AP in the Boston Globe reported that Edwards called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq to begin straight away, with the immediate recall of 40,000 combat troops as the first step.
With primary defeat coming to Lieberman on the 8th, some commentators suggested that the first impact on 2008 would be felt by... Joe Lieberman. Dick Polman at the Philadelphia Inquirer quotes William Kristol as asking: "Is it too fanciful to speculate about a 2008 GOP ticket of McCain-Lieberman, or Giuliani-Lieberman, or Romney-Lieberman, or Allen-Lieberman, or Gingrich-Lieberman?"
Criticising Lieberman for running as an independent, rather than bowing out and supporting Ned Lamont, the Concord Monitor noted that even Connecticut colleague, and potential 2008 contender, Chris Dodd had "deserted him." Bill Richardson "became the first prominent national Democrat to call on Sen. Joe Lieberman to drop his independent bid for re-election," according to CNN. Wesley Clark urged his supporters to sign a petition calling for Lieberman to drop out of the race, said USA Today. Also quick to announce that they would be supporting Ned Lamont, CNN reported, were Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. AP, in the Duluth News Tribune, also reported that Russ Feingold's PAC was giving $5,000 to Lamont's campaign.
A Siena College poll suggested that Hillary was continuing to maintain strong leads over other Democrats running for the Oval Office in 2008, but in New York was trailing the two leading Republicans. An AP story in Fox News reported that Rudy Giuliani led Hillary by 48 percent to 42, while John McCain had a 46-42 lead.
Elsewhere, George Pataki headed off to New Hampshire, drawing as he did a rather gratuitous attack from Hillary Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson. "He's clearly running for president," Wolfson said, in this AP story on Washington DC ABC affiliate WJLA-7. "It's unfortunate because he is the only one who takes his candidacy seriously." In which case, why waste your breath attacking him? Pataki followed up his visit by launching a series of energy policy proposals, centred on "tax credits for fuel-efficient cars and development of alternative fuels," according to AP on ABC News.
The Washington Post picked up on a minor storm brewing over George Allen's ownership of shares in Barr Laboratories Inc, a pharmaceutical company that makes 'Plan B', or the 'morning after pill'. Pro-life campaigners argue that 'Plan B' is a form of abortion, and have therefore criticised Allen - who has a perfect voting track record from a pro-life point of view - for his Barr stock holding. Allen refused to sell the Barr stock, noting, amongst other things, that Barr was an important employer in southern Virginia.
Allen did receive some high profile help with fundraising for his Senate re-election campaign, including from some prospective presidential rivals. Norfolk's WVEC-13 has an AP story reporting that both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani would appear at fundraisers for Allen towards the end of August. President Bush would be the start attraction at a third Allen fundraising event.
John Edwards was one of several likely presidential candidates in Iowa for the state fair, but AP in the Myrtle Beach Sun News reports that Edwards was doing more than shaking hands and sampling the local cuisine. Repeating the tactic that worked so well for him in Iowa in 2004, Edwards is "campaigning with and raising money for county-level political organizations, and with local candidates not used to the political limelight," AP says. "Many other candidates mirror that tactic, but Edwards outpaces them in intensity and the number of times he has traveled to the state." George Pataki brought his own joy to the state fair, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, by focusing on the war "between civilisation and barbarians" that the US was engaged in. Newt Gingrich, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Bill Frist, John McCain and, of course, Tom Vilsack all also made stops at the fair, according to the Des Moines Register. For Biden, the state fair was his first trip to Iowa since declaring his 2008 intentions and just part of fifteen days he would spend in Iowa in August. As the Wilmington News Journal reminds us, it was at the Iowa State Fair in 1987 that Biden made his famous speech, plagiarising from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, that forced him out of the 1988 presidential campaign.
Pataki's comments were a response to the foiled terrorist plot here in the UK to blow up some airliners, which also triggered a little spat between John Kerry and Mitt Romney. Kerry insisted that America's engagement in Iraq was distracting it from the more important war on terror. "Afghanistan and Pakistan are where the fight against Al Qaeda is, not in Iraq," Kerry said, according to the Boston Globe. Romney responded by arguing that Iraq was, in fact, one of the fronts in the war against terrorism. "I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of the kind of enemy that we're facing," Romney said of Kerry's remarks.
CBS2 of Chicago reports on the reception that Barack Obama got when he went to the Windy City to speak to the AFSCME convention there. "I think he should run for president," said convention delegate Henry Bayer. "I think that he could be the next president of the United States and I think that he would be if he would run." Adding a tantalising new twist to the Obama story, CBS2 claims that "sources close to Obama have told CBS 2 News that Obama would reconsider his previously announced decision to skip the 2008 presidential contest only if Mrs. Clinton does not run." OK, admittedly not a likely scenario, but interesting to speculate on.
Hillary herself also received a warm welcome at the same convention the next day, where, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, she launched a strong attack on oil company BP, whose pipeline in Alaska had just sprung a leak.
Mike Huckabee visited New Hampshire, where he played the guitar and talked about healthcare reform, the Portsmouth Herald reported.
And finally, AP in the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports on the unveiling of "The Presidential Bust of Hillary Clinton" - 'bust' being the operative word. The bust - the work of sculptor Daniel Edwards - shows the Senator displaying substantial cleavage, and has gone on display in Manhattan's Museum of Sex. "She has not commented on the bust," AP says.