I was pulling for Leiberman to win the nomination in '04 as well. No suprise he lost in '04. He really showed some character in that race by bucking the venemous anti-war types and made up for the whoring he did as the VP candidate in 2000. He has been a little weak in this race since he had to confront the criticism from the left and woo lefties.
A little more suprising he lost yesterday. He will have a difficult time running as an independent, but he does have some momentum going in the last few weeks despite the loss.
This is certainly bad for the Democrats. They have fewer and fewer reasonable people in their ranks the more this stuff happens. There is a constituency for hard left politics, but it can't be a majority in this country. It is in large part geographically isolated to the coasts and large cities and demographically isolated to aging radicals and dumb kids who haven't made any money or started families yet.
It will be interesting to see what happens if Joe wins. Will he feel free to be even less statist-liberal and more hawkish? Or will he feel the need to get back in good graces with his party? Will they take him back? This depends in part on who takes the reigns of the party in the next few years. If the Clintons take the party back, Joe will likely be taken back no matter what. If the Deaniacs and lefties continue to gain ground, Joe might be an independent for a long while.
