Informed Speculation

James Taranto turns in a lengthy, evenhanded profile of Ned Lamont, The Man Who Would Beat Lieberman, in today’s Wall Street Journal. Taranto likes Lamont, the man, even as he disagrees with (almost) all of his policy stances. Money quote:

Party leaders in Washington frown on challenges to incumbents, and Minority Leader Harry Reid has reportedly asked Mr. Lamont to back off. But the challenger can count on strong support from the “netroots” [sic]–left-wing blogs like DailyKos.com and Web sites like MoveOn.org–which bring in money and moral support from around the country. Call him a Kos celeb, though the world of blogs is new to him. “I threw my hat into the ring in the old statehouse a couple of months ago. I had my family there, and my 19-year-old daughter introduces me–her name is Emily–and somebody sends my wife a blog entry that says, ‘Ned is OK, but Emily is a hottie.’ So I got introduced to blogs.”

Although he himself has yet to blog, he reciprocates the online community’s enthusiasm. “I like the blogs for two reasons. . . . They were the first guys to ask me about why I am in this race and what I am serious about . . . and they get a lot of people to turn out at Naples Pizza in New Haven. You walk in there not knowing whether there’s going to be 10 guys eating pepperoni or 100 guys hanging from the rafter, and thanks to MyLeftNutmeg.com, there’s more likely to be 100 people there.”

Of course, Taranto meant to say ‘Nutroots®’ – somehow that typo slipped past the printer…