Today is the Connecticut primary, and apparently Joe Lieberman is in a tight race with Democratic challenger Ned Lamont.  This race has been in the news quite a lot in the last week, and I've really been having a hard time understanding why it seemed to be such big news.  Most of the time the choice between Lieberman and Lamont has been framed as a referendum on Lieberman's hawkish pro-Iraq War record:

At his campaign office in New Haven late Monday, Lamont reprised one of the basic themes of his campaign, the cost of the Iraq war.

He has called for pulling troops out of Iraq within one year.

"How come we're spending $250 million a day over there and we can't afford universal health care for every American... and I teach school in Bridgeport and we can't afford to keep that high school open past two o'clock in the afternoon?" he said.

But is that all there is to it?  I think not.  I don't think enough of the media gives two figs about this particular race enough to cover it as heavily as they are.  After all, it's just a primary.  There is another larger reason why this is an important race.  I think this will be a signal balloon to Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign in '08. 

Senator Clinton has actually been quite hawkish in the Senate, not that you'd know it from how often she speaks publicly about it, or how the media reports it.  But believe me, her potential primary challengers know it, and they're all watching this race to see how things turn out.  How much could Lieberman's record hurt him, and could they use similar tactics against Hillary in two years?  If Lieberman makes it through, will that signal Hillary to talk about her pro-war record in a more positive light, instead of trying to hide from it?

I think Lieberman is the Democratic guinea pig, and that's why so many people are really paying attention to this race.