Obama Rallies Connecticut Dems For Lieberman

Illinois Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama rallied support for Connecticut's Senator Lieberman Thursday night, predicting Lieberman would overcome the challenge from anti-war Greenwich millionaire Ned Lamont:

"I am absolutely certain Connecticut is going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the U.S. Senate so he can continue to serve on our behalf," he said.

When I first heard that Lieberman had lined up Obama to be the keynote speaker at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey fundraising dinner, I thought it would be another Democratic lovefest for Lieberman. But according to the Associated Press, even though Obama praised Lieberman's intellect, character and qualifications, scattered boos greeted Lieberman when he took the podium to address the sold out audience of 1,700.

UPDATE: The Norwich Bulletin's Ray Hackett has a different impression of the Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey dinner.

Hackett, focused on the symbolism of Obama's presence to the Democrat's appeal to the party's roots:

"His presence is important in that we, who are minorities, are in a position to make decisions for other minority groups," Norwich Alderwoman Jackie Caron said. "Other people aren't going to know what those issues are. What I hope is to bring back some new ideas to my community."

Daniel Lee Cornelious Jr., 25, of Norwich did not attend the dinner, but said Obama's visit to Connecticut is important because of the publicity it generated.

"He has an appeal to new voters, especially (the)African-American community," the University of Connecticut sophomore said. "In a way, he does represent the American dream, that if you work hard you can be successful.

"He's reaching out on a national level," Cornelious said. "It shows that he cares about the party, and he wants to strengthen the Democratic Party. And it needs to be strengthened."

Hackett didn't note the boos reported by the Associated Press, but he did report that State Democratic Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo took a shot at Lamont:

"We're supposed to be running against Republicans, not Democrats," DiNardo said, before the start of the evening's event. "It takes away from the other candidates, it takes away from the party."

As I have posted before, the Democratic leadership is not going to let Lieberman loose his senate seat.

UPDATE II: The Hartford Courant's Mark Pazniokas also failed to mention the boos, reporting Lieberman was afforded a polite, though tepid, response by the audience. Pazniokas did note that the event organizers managed to snub Lamont:

Lamont was excluded from a roped-off compound of a dozen tables reserved by the podium for party leaders. He and his wife, Annie, sat at Table 96, by the entrance to the kitchen.

He was joined by James Dean, who runs the liberal advocacy group Democracy for America. Dean is the brother of Howard Dean, Democratic Party chairman.

At ConnecticutBLOG, CTblogger, who attended the fundraiser, was "shocked with the amount of boos Joe received."

More thoughts at Connecticut Local Politics, Decision 08 and Ex-Donkey Blog.