When Richard Blumenthal jumped into the U.S. Senate race after Chris Dodd decided he wouldn't run for re-election, he seemed like a sure thing. It's hard to overstate his popularity among voters. He's been the attorney general since 1991, and he champions causes as big as security fraud and as small (and contentious) as chronic Lyme disease.
That's probably still true despite The New York Times'' revelations that his allusions to military service weren't exactly factual. The distinction is a clear one -- he served in the Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam War but never served overseas in combat -- that has become less clear when he's talked about it. Today, at a press conference, he said he mispoke. Ultimately, people will probably believe him, and forgive him. Voters have forgiven bigger distortions.
Greg Sargent agrees:
Whatever the truth, he insisted with a great deal of conviction that his lapses weren't intentional. And the evidence so far suggests that in other settings, he didn't intend to mislead. Perhaps most important, no Dems are cutting and running right now. They seem to have closed ranks behind him.
If Blumenthal doesn't, though, there are tons of Democrats active right now, including the crowded field for governor. Ned Lamont has really been eyeing the Senate for a long time, and it's not hard to imagine him jumping into the Senate race instead.
-- Monica Potts
