He really brought into focus the reason for the Britney Spears ad – and accompanying personal onslaught on Obama:
[N]otwithstanding his celebrity status, is Barack Obama ready to lead? And my answer is no, that Barack Obama is a gifted, eloquent, young man who can and I hope will give great leadership to America in the years ahead. But the question is who’s ready to be president on January 20th, 2009 with the economy in a crisis and facing dangerous enemies abroad. It’s clearly John McCain. We only have two choices here: John McCain, Barack Obama. John McCain is ready to lead.
But surely Obama’s foreign trip demonstrated his readiness to lead, his diplomatic skills and the kind of soft power this country hasn’t had in six years. So what do you do when a first term senator reveals fewer gaffes, more polish and greater theater than McCain ever has in his foreign excursions? You compare Obama to Britney. You insinuate, as Lieberman did, that Obama is the foreign candidate – with bigger crowds in Berlin than Portland.
Lieberman, from his scripted talking points on drilling for oil to his endorsement of the Hilton-Spears ads, is now a Republican party hack. In the end, the netroots drove him over the cliff, didn’t they?