I love New England.  Contrary to David Brooksian garbage mythology, New England residents are not unhinged hippies looking for the next bong hit with Michael Dukakis.  There's a lot of rural space, with farm equipment, horses, cows, etc. your basic agricultural setup.  Connecticut has cities of course, Hartford and New Haven, but there are small towns and rural hamlets whose heritage is genuinely rooted in the public square civic society of the late 18th century.  Public service isn't a joke here, it's a callling.

Ned Lamont comes squarely from this New England tradition of local citizens running for office.  Mostly New England's politics revolves around political machinery, a mix of different ethnicities and union members fighting over primaries, with suburban voters often swinging Governor's to the Republicans because of their disgust over these machines.  Lieberman is a product of this machine, and the popular Governor, Jodi Rell, is a reaction to it.  Machines to the left, Republicans to the right.  Lamont is a direct challenge to this dynamic, and he's bringing out new faces and new energy and tearing it down.

Lamont himself is a lot more focused and smooth than he was when I first met him in February.  He acts and speaks like an experienced candidate, and though he stumbles occasionally, he's disciplined, direct, and conserves his energy wisely.  The picture to the right comes from the Lamont commercial shoot this morning.

In most campaigns, there's a strong and addictive pull towards the candidates.  Elections are really really fun.  For movement campaigns like this one, the energy is simply addictive, and all sorts of characters are trying to stake their claim to a piece of it.  The perspective warping competitive juices, mixing rock star politics, idealism, and a good bar fight, tends to throw off one's sense of a bigger picture.  This is why politically experienced operatives act like cynical sharks; it's otherwise too difficult to keep your head above water and make good choices.  It's pretty great to be riding a wave before everyone else, and suddenly have what seems like the world join the party all at once.  It's addictive.  It even affects the political reporters, who go out of their way to demonstrate that they are not affected by the newfound political puppy love.  In reality, it affects everyone.  Elections are great, great fun.

If you're in or around Connecticut, you should come and canvass for Lamont.  Before you come, contact Lamont headquarters, and they'll have turf cut for you.  There's a sense that something really special is going on, a real discussion about the state of our country.  It's a conversation that people want to have, and Lamont-Lieberman is allowing us to have it.

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Oh, and this is just sleazy:

Lieberman, 64, a three-term incumbent, tried to set a new tone for the campaign's final 12 days. (His 10-day tour will suspend today and next Saturday in observance of the Jewish Sabbath, though he intends to campaign after sundown tonight at a Temptations concert on the New Haven Green.)

So Lieberman's surrogates keep mouthing off about antisemitism, using his orthodox relgion as cover.  That makes me mad, since I'm Jewish and no one's presented any proof of antisemitism anywhere.  And now apparently Lieberman is tossing his orthodox religiosity away to make a campaign stop.  What a classy guy.

Update again: Ok, I forgot that today's Saturday, I thought it was Friday. Lieberman's fine.