Cramer versus Stewart
It really wasn't even a contest...

In his interview on WVIT's "Connecticut Newsmaakers", Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy explains where he stands in terms of running for governor...and I have the feeling that we'll be hearing the same thing from other candidates soon.

MIKE VIQUEIRA: Let me ask you this, Chris you know..I'm sorry, Ari. Chris Cilizza, the Fix blog in the Washington Post, quoted a Democratic aide who said about bloggers and the Lieberman vote, quote "They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes."
You know, I work on the Hill and I've heard that sentiment expressed many times over again, that the netroots -- the liberal blogosphere -- overestimates its influence. What do you say to that?
ARI MELBER: Well, number one you have to look at the source. There you have someone who isn't even going to speak on the record, under their own name. That would suggest some fear right there, hiding behind anonymity for a very basic claim to the Washington Post. And someone who sees themselves potentially -- I don't know the person because they won't stand up for themselves -- but potentially a competitor with the liberal blogs. Maybe it is from a congressional office that has had conflict -- maybe it was a Lieberman aide, we don't know because that person won't say. But I do think you have competition here.
Is he in is he out? That the question that comes to mind when I think about Stamford mayor Dan Malloy and the 2010 governor's race.

1: Please sign Firedoglake's petition to the members of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee telling them that it's time for Joe to go.
2: PLEASE sign the petition to the members of the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee asking them to support the pending resolution to censure Joe Lieberman (NOTE: State Central will meet to take up this matter on Dec 17th.

Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been "vindicated" by his campaign's success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African-Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn't they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren't dreaming, the way that I do?
I know there's a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there's a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won't be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn't be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of "Dr. Strangelove effect" in which voters' hands developed a will of their own.
I'm being facetious but not unserious. In my gut, I know there's a chance that the first African-American to make a serious run for the presidency will lose. But that is precisely what's new, and, in a sense, unsettling: I'm talking about possibility, not inevitability.
For African-Americans, at least those of us old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, this is nothing short of mind-blowing. It's disorienting, and it makes me see this nation in a different light.
You see, I remember a time of separate and unequal schools, restrooms and water fountains -- a time when black people were officially second-class citizens. I remember moments when African-Americans were hopeful and excited about the political process, and I remember other moments when most of us were depressed and disillusioned. But I can't think of a single moment, before this year, when I thought it was within the realm of remote possibility that a black man could be nominated for president by one of the major parties -- let alone that he would go into Election Day with a better-than-even chance of winning.
Let me clarify: It's not that I would have calculated the odds of an African-American being elected president and concluded that this was unlikely, it's that I wouldn't even have thought about such a thing.
African-Americans' love of country is deep, intense and abiding, but necessarily complicated. At its hour of its birth, the nation was already stained by the Original Sin of slavery. Only in that past several decades has legal racism been outlawed and casual racism made unacceptable, at least in polite company. Millions of black Americans have managed to pull themselves up into mainstream, middle-class affluence, but millions of others remain mired in poverty and dysfunction.
A few black Americans broke through into the highest echelons of American society. Oprah Winfrey became the most powerful woman in the entertainment industry by appealing to an audience that is mostly white. Richard Parsons, Stanley O'Neal and others became alpha males in the lily-white world of Wall Street. Through superhuman skill and unbending will, Tiger Woods came to dominate a sport long seen as emblematic of white privilege.
Along came Barack Obama, a young man with an unassailable resume and a message of post-racial transformation. Initially, a big majority of African-Americans lined up behind his major opponent in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton. The reason was simple: In the final analysis, white Americans weren't going to vote for the black guy. Better to go with the safe alternative.
But an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated. For me, it was the moment when the utterly impossible became merely unlikely. That's a huge, fundamental change, and it launched a sequence of events over the subsequent months that made me realize that some things I "knew" about America were apparently wrong.
Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.
We can all have a new kind of pride in our country.
From last month at the Ridgefield Playhouse, here's video footage of the 111th State Rep debate between Di Masters and John Frey as well as the 26th State Senate debate between John Hartwell and Toni Boucher.

From last week in Stamford, here's video footage of the 4th CD debate between Jim Himes and Chris Shays.
While everyone is talking about Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama, it's his criticism towards the way John McCain has conducted his campaign that's REALLY damaging...