Finishing 5th, Lieberman vows to carry on

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Senator Joseph I. Lieberman vowed last night to go forward with his presidential campaign, putting the best possible light on an apparent fifth-place finish in New Hampshire, telling supporters that "we are in a three-way split decision for third place."

"You and I both know that the national pundits didn't expect it, did they?" Lieberman said in a nationally televised appearance last night, adding: "Today the people of New Hampshire put me in the ring, and that's where we are going to stay."

Lieberman, in an interview on CNN after speaking to supporters, said he would travel to some of the seven states holding primary and caucus votes on Feb. 3, including Oklahoma. "I have a cause here. It's more than a campaign. I am the one mainstream Democrat," Lieberman said.

Lieberman also took a rare swipe at last night's winner, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts. Asked why he didn't think the Massachusetts senator is a mainstream Democrat, Lieberman replied: "Just look at his record and look at what Republicans are already saying about him." That was a reference to GOP charges that Kerry is too liberal.

Lieberman's declaration that he was part of a split decision for third place with Senator John Edwards and retired Army General Wesley K. Clark surprised some commentators, including Lieberman's old friend, former Senator Bob Dole, who said on CNN with his trademark humor that it was Lieberman's "dream" concession speech in comparison to Dean's "scream" speech in Iowa.

For weeks, Lieberman left little doubt that he didn't expect to win the primary here, or even place second.

Instead, he had one mantra: He wanted to do "better than expected."

In the days leading up to the primary vote, Lieberman said he would continue campaigning no matter what.

Unlike some other candidates, who pulled ads from the Feb. 3 primary states to focus their resources on New Hampshire, Lieberman has continued to run advertisements in Delaware, Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Carolina.

"Unlike other campaigns, we have not taken our ads down in Feb. 3 states, and that is in part because we have husbanded our resources so that we could remain competitive in New Hampshire, through Feb. 3 and beyond," Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera said yesterday.

Lieberman, the most conservative of the Democratic candidates, promoted himself as the most electable of the field -- maintaining that he would be most likely to attract independents and Republicans in a general election contest. But he found it hard to gain traction in primaries dominated by liberal activists.

After deciding to bypass Iowa, he moved into a temporary apartment in Manchester, and showed up regularly at a local diner for a "Cup of Joe" with breakfasting voters. Lieberman seemed to take some satisfaction from moving the political conversation back to the middle, in the "New Democrat" territory that he says the party must occupy in order to regain the White House.