To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (81106 ) 11/1/2006 8:36:38 PM From: Hope Praytochange Respond to of 173976 To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (80970) 11/1/2006 8:41:58 AM From: johnflipflopper of 81108 Baby Steps on the Political Proving Ground Since his rise as the Democratic Senate candidate in Connecticut, Ned Lamont’s political star has fallen, as the man from old money has faced the cold reality of fickle voters and a formidable opposition. By SARAH KERSHAW and ALISON LEIGH COWAN HARTFORD — He seemed to sprout from nowhere to topple the establishment. In his stunning upset in the August Senate primary, he defeated a three-term incumbent and turned Connecticut politics upside down. He instantly became a favorite of the left-leaning blogosphere and his own political brand, with “Ned Lamont Democrat” surfacing on television programs and the Web as code for antiwar outsider. But since that heady and sudden rise, Mr. Lamont’s political star has fallen, as the cable television executive from old money and a cocoon of privilege has faced the cold reality of a more conventional general election campaign, with more fickle voters and a formidable opposition. The Connecticut race has been eclipsed by the frenzy of national Congressional elections. And Mr. Lamont, a relative neophyte whose previous foray into politics consisted of eight years on three local and state boards and a failed bid for State Senate, has struggled amid a brute force response from a seasoned candidate, trailing in the public opinion polls for weeks. The antiwar message that won him the primary has not been, alone, enough of a selling point to the much wider audience of more moderate, less-motivated fall voters, and Mr. Lamont’s efforts to broaden his issues portfolio only muddled the differences between him and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. The man whose campaign was run out of a coffee shop in Hartford for the first several months lacks Mr. Lieberman’s polished prime-time campaign persona; he is far more comfortable at a town committee meeting in the country than on television repeating talking points. “You get into this general election and you just don’t have a chance to meet people,” Mr. Lamont said in an interview at the coffee shop, La Paloma Sabonera, where he still stops to nap or discuss strategy with his advisers. “Now it’s TV or a media hit and you’ve got to respond.” He added: “In hindsight, when Joe Lieberman was outspending me big-time on TV, defining me, I should have probably put up pieces