JOE-LUSIONAL

Well, this was just shameless...

Let me get right to the heart of it for you:
Lieberman: I'm exceeding expectations
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) -- Joe Lieberman
counted on independents for a stronger-than-expected
showing in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary,
which he said would be a victory regardless of where he
placed among the seven candidates.

The Connecticut senator was undeterred by early results
putting him in fifth place with about 10 percent of the vote.

"Senator Lieberman has said all along that his campaign
starts here, it does not end here," spokesman Dan
Gerstein said.

"The standard for showing some strength here is to
do better than expected. A week ago we were in the
low single digits. After a very strong debate
performance Senator Lieberman jumped up in most of
the tracking polls," Gerstein said.

And then in his address to the crowd, tells his crowd that failing to break into double digits, finishing fifth is a great vindication of his cause...

Translated: "But Al From said *I* get to be President...waaaaaa...."

But the real problem for me is that this guy comes out in a delusional haze as bad as Bagdad Bob, watching tanks roll up on the Palace telling his people that he is on the cusp of victory, but CNN essentially gives him a pass, while Dean , who finished third, *not* fifth, in Iowa gets a little loud with a room full of true believers and that's the only clip you see on TV for a week of the guy.

Speaking of which, Dean came out and actually gave a really good speech for his "first loser" position. (I know this sounds bitter, but I am a big Dean supporter). And as an interesting side note, I'm not sure how this happens but due to yet another quirk in electoral politics, in spite of his placement in the field through two elections, Dean actually leads in the actual convention delegate count.

To wit: Kerry has 95 and Dean has 112. Not sure how that goes...

Kerry, now he just put up some great numbers and then came on CNN with Herr Blitzer and absolutely got into Dubya. If this is the kind of campaign that Kerry is going to run, then good on him. And I think that perhaps we might have a Howard Dean to thank for that!