Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive and costly get-out-the-vote operation on primary day, according to several Democratic sources. Instead, he will shift some of his resources into more television commercials designed to highlight his accomplishments for the state, in hopes of boosting his battered image....

The Lieberman campaign, fearing that low voter turnout in the primary would favor Lamont, had plans to build a get-out-the-vote operation bigger than any seen in a state race in Connecticut. But in the face of discouraging polls, campaign officials concluded this week that the money likely would be wasted.

Lieberman plans to spend the remaining days of the campaign making a positive case for himself through television ads and a series of media interviews, according to campaign officials. He has decided not to attempt to discuss the war in his final commercials.

Lieberman supporters piled into every booth at the tiny eatery and snatched up every seat at the counter roughly half an hour before Lamont's arrival. Then, as he walked down the sidewalk from Sherman Avenue, they threw on white Lieberman T-shirts and waited. Moments later, they pounced.

Initially, Lamont appeared stunned by the ambush. However, he remained composed throughout the ordeal. He attempted to answer each question and made an effort to shake many of his opponent's supporters' hands at the second of two campaign stops in the city Thursday. After both sides sparred for several minutes, Lamont left the restaurant without ever sampling one of Ted's famous steamed cheeseburgers.

As Lieberman was touring West Hartford, two of his supporters - AFL-CIO President John Olsen and House Speaker Jim Amann, D-Milford - took aim at Lamont. But the event - a sparsely attended press conference at the Legislative Office Building - raised no new issues.

The one group regarded as most loyal to Lieberman are the Washington veterans who show up not only for the lunch at the hotel, but other Capitol Hill fundraisers in recent weeks. Among the hosts were Tony Podesta, a high-powered Washington consultant, and his wife Heather, a Washington lawyer....

"The Washington lawyers and lobbyists in those rooms will come back for Joe Lieberman," said Michael Lewan, a Washington consultant and former Lieberman chief of staff. "Who knows what Lamont would be like?"

As I've said before, if he's avoiding conservative media in an effort to win back Democrats, he might as well say so. It's hard to get credit for responding to criticism if you insist you are not actually responding. But the numbers don't lie: Lieberman went from 25 Fox appearances during the 2004 presidential campaign to 4 appearances in 2005 to 0 this year.

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds Lieberman with the worst ratings from Democrats nationally since Gallup first measured his image in 2000. As a result, he is now more popular with Republicans than with supporters of his own party. Among Republicans and Republican "leaners," a plurality of 46% view Lieberman favorably, while 27% view him unfavorably. Democrats are more evenly divided in their attitudes, with 38% viewing him favorably and 32% unfavorably.

“I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a business guy,” Lamont told CBSNews.com. “I think if you see a problem, you want to go out and fix it.”...

The roots of Lieberman's free fall in the polls (complacency, hubris) have been hashed over in the press.

But Lamont's secret recipe probably deserves a little more attention. While there's no question about the fact that Lamont's anti-war crusade is driving his candidacy (65 percent of the Democrats in the Quinnipiac poll say they're voting against Lieberman), Lamont has also been boosted by a frenetic, hustling grassroots campaign....

Half a year of visiting picnics, parades, nursing homes and school auditoriums around the Nutmeg state hasn't hurt. His modus operandi at small gatherings is to try to meet every attendee before delivering a short speech that often evokes cheers, laughter and questions.