If Mario Cuomo weren't the father of Andrew Cuomo he would be an excellent placeholder. As it stands, speaking of three families (Kennedy, Cuomo, Clinton), where two of them have been seen a marriage in amongst them, won't do much to mollify critics of this entire process.

Again, look at the data for SurveyUSA. Chafee was never over 56% in the last year. Now there may have been polls which did say otherwise but it's highly doubtful they were as accurate.

The point here is that Collin's approval is much higher than Chafee's and at this point it's not going down. Chafee also had a primary challenge to contend with.

Best not to begin with any illusions about how difficult it will be to get rid of Susan Collins.

Allen: We haven't done any polling, so I really don't know. Look, she has high approval ratings, but so did Lincoln Chafee. Lincoln Chafee's approval rating was 76 percent in Sheldon Whitehouse's first poll and it was 63 percent on the day he lost. The people of Rhode Island got it and I think that the people of Maine will get it that this election is about a lot more than Tom Allen and Susan Collins, it's about the future direction of the country.

I'd like to see the polls Tom Allen is referring to by Whitehouse. According to SurveyUSA, Chafee was more often than not in negative territory with Republicans.

SurveyUSA  Chafee approval

Why did they choose that version --which didn't appear until July--when the footage had already been used many other times prior, and the kiss Float was even more emblematic by then.

Not trying to knock your effort but it does seem a curious choice.

Why wait until Monday?

Thank you.

I'll take someone's opinion who actually works for the campaign and is on the ground in Connecticut over  trend analysis any day of the week.

Polls do not vote. People vote.

And Ned Lamont needs more of 'em to show up on August 8th than Joe Lieberman can cajole/convince/pursuade in the next two weeks with his millions of dollars in an all-out push.

I have no problems with the analysis but the title and the overall assessment is somewhat lacking. What is important is getting voters out on August 8th. Anything which helps foster a complacent attitude is detrimental, however well-intentioned.

The truth is Joe Lieberman is making his last stand right now. He has $5,000,000 and a serious ground game at work to get out the vote. Also, a guy named Clinton was recently in the state which should help Lieberman, if only marginally, it might be enough to put him over the top in a close race.

In the end, polls are nothing more than snapshots. Pleasing to the eye perhaps but nothing more. What really counts are who votes on August 8th.

This was on his website before he took the website down.

An independent consultant as of 2001, Sean Smith continues to favorably position clients through strategic communications, public relations, speechwriting, government affairs, and coalition building. Sean has pioneered a communications technique known as "impression management." Based on the premise that it is the low-information, episodic voter that swings elections--and that those voters only make broad impressions of candidates--Sean has developed an innovative approach to political communications. He has successfully applied these principles to issue campaigns and general communications campaigns.

Starting to sound like one?

He's gone from

"I'm a Democrat. I'll die a Democrat! But if I have to take my case to all the voters of Connecticut.."

to

"I'm an Independent Democrat!"

to

"Aw, the hell with it. I just want to keep my seat!!"

The poll you're referring to was by Quinnipiac, not by the Hartford Courant.

June 8, 2006 - Lamont Gains On Lieberman Among Connecticut Dems, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Rell Rules In Governor's Race

Anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont has gained ground on Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and now trails the incumbent 55 - 40 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, including undecided voters who are leaning towards a candidate, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Among all Democrats, Sen. Lieberman leads 57 - 32 percent, compared to 65 - 19 percent in a May 2 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11359.xml

And if that sounds acceptable to you consider that among all Democrats Lieberman's approval rate is now in negative territory:

Survey USA

Connecticut Bob notices that Joe doesn't even bother to include Iraq as an important issue on his joe2006 website..

http://ctbob.blogspot.com/2006/06/joes-g ot-issues.html

They both gave their opinions and later changed their minds. I don't begrudge either of them their initial caution and skepticism. Also note the quick turn around time, unlike others who are still spouting the same, tired rhetoric they were months ago that Lamont is an angry, single-issue candidate whose primary battle is damaging to the Democratic party in Connecticut.

Both Stoller (back in January) and AnthonySF (late April) were firmly in the Lamont camp before it became trendy (after Lamont's astonishing numbers at the Connecticut Democratic Convention, May 19th).

Also, read this diary at DailyKos from 10 days later.

I Met Ned Lamont, and We Need Him in the Senate

On several occasions I have made clear my initial hesitation with Lamont's primary challenge to Joe Lieberman. My main caveat is that with taking back control of the Senate within our grasp, it's foolish to waste precious resources on a primary battle against an admittedly bad -- although voting-record-wise, not too terrible -- Democrat. However, I came to terms last night with the fact that donating to Ned is not necessarily a zero-sum game -- and when people like Hillary Clinton rack up $20 million for a "Senate" run, there should hopefully be more than enough support to spread around.