What is the "pink elephant in the room" that squashed Lieberman?

[BurtWorm]

A couple of weeks ago, as he defended Joe Lieberman, Bill Clinton referred to "the pink elephant in the room" that he never named but which he implied was hanging heavily in the air around the Democratic primary in Connecticut. Conventional wisdom is that he was referring to Lieberman's support for the Iraq war, but a caller to CSPAN this morning asserted (very implausibly, I think) that the reference was to US support for Israel. Whatever Clinton thought it was, it's really whatever weighed on Lieberman's campaign from the moment Lamont entered through last night.

What was the pink elephant?

[davidinalameda]

1. his support for Iraq

[MichiganVote]

2. Lieberman has only himself to blame. By ignoring his constutiency

he convinced people he didn't and doesn't really want the job.

[blm]

3. He probably would have survived, but after he came out on the senate floor

and ATTACKED the Kerry-Feingold withdrawal plan for Iraq, he did so REPRESENTING the GOP position and even did so on their time.

His poll numbers after that dropped irreversibly. It was one thing to have a position similar to a few other centrist Dems, but to attack those offering honest Dem alternatives as a representative for the GOP, that was TOO MUCH for even the casual voter.

[Quantess]

4. Pink elephant? Mysterious.

There's a "white elephant gift", and there's an "elephant in the room" but what's a pink elephant? For some reason, I'm thinking of a pink triangle. Could it be the smooch-and-grope with B*sh?

Or, would that imply having a touch of republican red, affecting the elephant's color?

Hmmmmm..

[BurtWorm]

5. Pink elephant used to refer to what alkies saw when they reached a limit.

I don't think Bill meant it like that, but who knows? ;)