Not Just a Float

After a whole day of going Door to Door and phone banking for Ned Lamont, I stopped by an Irish Pub where bloggers where getting together. To my surprise, the infamous Kiss Float was parked right across the street.

The Kiss Float has been seen all over Connecticut and as friend said "The float which is a masterpiece of political science really deserves a Nobel prize."



Instead of going into the pub, I crossed the street and had a really good conversation with the driver of the float, CtKeith, who started the blog DumpJoe.com, prior to Ned Lamont beginning his campaign.

Keith told me of the history of the Lamonts. Ned's uncle was Corliss Lamont, a 20th century American hero whose independent thinking challenged prevailing ideas in philosophy, economics, religion, patriotism, world peace and the exercise of our cherished civil liberties.

Corliss was an Humanist, who taught courses of Humanism at Columbia University. He was honored with many awards, one being the Gandhi Peace Award in 1981. He was on the Board of Directors of the ACLU and National Urban League.

Ned Lamont says:

America must not compromise basic Constitutional liberties during the war on terror. While increased surveillance and covert intelligence are necessary in defense of our country, we also have laws such as FISA, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, to protect against political abuses of such wiretapping and government search and seizure.

I have followed this campaign from day one, watching as the volunteers signed up prior to Ned announcing that he would run. The blogs have provided us with a wealthy of information, but equally important were all the workers, volunteers, staff and supporters. With that much energy, we are told to expect a close race and high voter turnout. Keith was explaining that over 10,000 unaffiliated registered voters have changed their party to Democrat. Quite an unheard thing, I would say.

Chris Bowers says:

A similar phenomenon is happening in Connecticut. The closer Ned Lamont appears to come to victory on August 8th, the more the media pays attention to what could potentially become a major event in recent American political history.