By Ezra
Thinking about the last post, I did some cursory searching to see what Lieberman said after Bush's three percent victory. Here he is with Chris Wallace on November 14th, 2004:
WALLACE: Now that you've had time to reflect, what do you think is the single biggest reason that John Kerry lost the election?
LIEBERMAN: You know, the wonder of our system, Chris, of course, is that, you know, 115 million people vote, everybody makes up their own mind. There are so many reasons why it happened.
In the end, my own feeling is, looking at the polls, but intuiting, based on people I talk to, is that, although Senator Kerry got a lot of votes, 56 million votes, more than any Democratic candidate for president in history, but there's no prizes for second place in American politics.
And I think people, 3.5 million more voted for President Bush, largely on the question of security. We're in the midst of a war on terror. This president has been resolute. And a lot of people had confidence in his leadership to protect their safety, and basically decided they didn't want to change leaders in the midst of a war.[...]
I think this is a moment -- the president won. He got 3.5 million votes more than John Kerry. He's got an agenda. Most important of all, he's our commander in chief in the war on terror and the war in Iraq.
And it's time for us, including Democrats, to acknowledge that there are very few of us who have a policy going forward other than the one the president has. So let's support it. Let's increase the capability of the Iraqi military, get them ready for elections, to self-govern, and establish a self-governing democracy in the Middle East, which will be one of the greatest things we can do in the war on terror.
And here he is on -- yes -- Hannity and Colms on November 16th, 2004:
HANNITY: Senator, I watched you closely over the weekend, and you were very strong in saying that the Democratic Party didn't need to bring somebody like Howard Dean, who's on the fringe of your party, the left wing of your party, to run the party. You got your way. Harry Reid got this position.
But it's more than that. I have heard, you know, some of the most unbelievable statements from prominent Democrats, prominent liberals leading up to this whole thing, attacking the president while he's at war, questioning his motives, et cetera.
Are you -- and Michael Moore is sitting next to Jimmy Carter, a guest of honor at the convention, are you concerned about this leftward tilt of the Democratic Party in general?
LIEBERMAN: Well, sure I am. And you know, it exists at a certain level of people who are activists, Sean, but to me it doesn't speak for the rank and file of my party.
It's certainly not -- it's not the party of John F. Kennedy, who drew me and a lot of other people into political service. And I think we've got to be really careful about it.
Look, there's a lot of messages in any national campaign. But I think ultimately, 3.5 million more Americans trusted George W. Bush with their security.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Senator...
LIEBERMAN: And until we can regain their confidence, we're not going to win those elections.
You guys got more?
