New York Times Endorses Ned Lamont

The New York Times on Sunday endorsed Democratic nominee Ned Lamont to replace Joe Lieberman as United States Senator from Connecticut. Citing Lamont's freshness and intellectual curiosity versus Lieberman's loyalty to George W. Bush and utter inability to admit mistakes in the Iraq war, the Times considered who would best move our country toward a better Iraq policy and said that Lamont is "by far the better candidate."

An excerpt of the endorsement:

The fatal problem with Mr. Lieberman’s candidacy is not that he was wrong about the invasion, but that he has not shown any capacity to grow and change. Suggesting that getting rid of Donald Rumsfeld might be a good idea is hardly a breakthrough at a time when the secretary of defense’s supporters are pretty much limited to the president and members of the Rumsfeld family.

Mr. Lieberman has changed his tone but not his underlying conviction that he has been right all along. He and Mr. Bush are still on the very same page, encouraging the American people to believe that there is a happy ending for American involvement in Iraq, and that all it takes is the perseverance to keep marching toward the end of the rainbow.

Ned Lamont has run a far less polished campaign than Mr. Lieberman, but the more we see of him, the more impressed we are by his intelligence and his growing sophistication about the issues facing the nation. He is very much in the Connecticut mold of basically moderate, principled politicians, and his willingness to take on Mr. Lieberman when no one else dared to do it showed real courage and conviction. He would make a good senator. More important, he has the capacity to continually become a better one. We endorse Ned Lamont for Senate.

You can read the entire editorial here.