Lessons Learned Behind the Scenes

If I drank a lot, I would be under the table by now. What a day it was! Very interesting from a number of angles.

1. The media decides what the story will be in advance.. I know this is no newsflash, but I really was surprised at how conspiratorial the national media is -- throughout the place today. This is the Lamont-Lieberman race, and they don't want to have to deal with a third candidate -- (whaah -- too much work! We have the Ned/Joe story down pat). The initial reaction was to dismiss Alan as a cartoon -- they were doing the same thing that was done to Dean. Tomorrow's morning papers will be the most interesting -- to see if as they talked to more people, and realized that Alan scored the most points.

2. Joe Blows. The Lamont rally owned the front of the hotel. There was one gal with a Schlesinger sign. Alan walked in the front way -- proudly (see nbc30.com if you can find Monahan's story from the 6pm) Joe slinked in the back door -- he couldn't have missed the kiss float, but didn't have the guts to walk in the front door. Metaphorical, isn't it?

3. Joe's scared. Immediately afterward, when the media was swarming Ned and Al-mentum, Joe came running up the back stairs. Those were the stairs between the press room where I was perched and the ballroom, and the doors were propped open for the TV wiring. There were heated voices in the staircase between Joe and "his people" on the way up. I didn't have video to catch him on the stairs, and as if by providence, Spazeboy appeared, and I told him Joe had just gone up the stairs. After just a few minutes, they came barreling back down the stairs (maybe Joe needed the little boy's room in their rented room upstairs? Who the hell knows. He has to take 6 people to the bathroom?) As Spazeboy said -- what was amazing is that Joe beat it out of the ballroom and actually left the cameras! Joe was clearly annoyed that we caught him == yet again. He got blindsided and it showed. And Joe didn't like it one bit.

4. When Connecticut Progressive Bloggers work together, amazing things happen.. I've said it before, there is no better group: Spazeboy, Caffeinated Geek Girl, CTBlogger got it done today. In fact, I was driving home while Spazeboy was working on the staircase video in the passenger seat -- with his wireless access and power adapter plugged in while I drove. Not to mention DeanFan84 and CTKeith who ushered in the return of the KISS float.

5. Polls in this race are worthless. There is no way Alan is in single digits, when internal polling shows 20% of likely voters plan to vote straight-line Republican. I said it before, and I will keep saying it -- Joe is ahead by name recognition. A lot of people are not paying attention, and it will not dawn on them until they get in the booth and see Ned on the D line and Alan on the R line.

6. Ned is Ned.And bottom line, that's why we love him. No, he's not the polished pol who makes it all look as easy as water falling off a duck's back. He is not going to change in the next 3 weeks, but the good news is we're not getting the Joe patented bait-and-switch either. Ned is so very personable one-on-one -- he made his points, and jumped on Joe in his Ned way. Now is not the time to become disillusioned.

7. Local news is waking up. All 4 stories I saw tonight on the network affiliates were fair and balanced and not the suck-ups to Lieberman they usually are. Maybe they finally smell the blood in the water.

Who knows what will happen in the next 3 weeks? Who thought we would be here with this Republican circular firing squad of the last month?

Keep the faith.