The Lamont campaign rolled out its latest ad — starring Connecticut's senior Senator Christopher Dodd.  Something tells me that Turncoat Joe is going to be a little more petulant than usual today.

This is just the first of many things going on between now and election day.  DNC Chairman Howard Dean will be campaigning with Ned at a rally in Hartford today at noon — if you are in Connecticut, it should be a great event from everything I'm hearing — so take your lunch hour with Ned and Howard Dean!

If you aren't happy with what you are hearing about poll numbers or establishment Democratic support for the Connecticut Senate race, well, here's the solution:  get up off your butt and do something about it – you can volunteer for Ned's campaign, for canvassing, or calling, or whatever, by checking here.

And that goes for races across the nation.   In every state, in every district — somewhere near you, a Democratic candidate could use a hand.

It's Friday — campaign staffs and local Democratic party groups are planning the weekend's canvassing and phone calls.  Why not take a few minutes today and contact a local campaign office or Democratic headquarters and sign up to do something.  Find a candidate whose values match up with yours, and give them a hand.  Go and vote in the early voting — lock in your choices now, and then take election day to hold signs for your candidate.  Whatever it takes.  Where ever you are needed.

Because whatever progress we are going to make in this nation of ours, it is up to us — all of us — to do the hard work toward it.  We can't sit back and hope someone else will do it for us — the time is now. 

We cannot win anything if we do not get out our vote.  It is that simple.  All politics is local, as Tip O'Neill used to say, and he was absolutely right — knocking on your neighbors' doors and talking to them about why this election matters or doing the same thing over the phone is still the best way to get people out to vote.  Channel that anger and frustration and disgust about the lack of accountability, the shredding of the Constitution, and the need for checks and balances into getting out every single vote you can find to make the changes we so desperately need in this nation of ours. 

We need your help…won't you stand up and lead the way?

UPDATE:  I wanted to add this analysis from reader dab in CT, who has quite a bit of familiarity with polling methodology:

As someone who used to do polling on a national level I can say that the statements that Schwartz made, that the debates made no impact, is just wrong, wrong, wrong – and unprofessional.

They held off the poll by ONE day because people were dismissing it as being done pre-debate.

They clearly did not do all the polling (1,800) people after the 2nd debate aired in CT at 7:00 pm last night.

I’ll wait till I see other polls after the three debates have aired. The next one is Monday the 23rd and it is being moderated by Stepanopolis. It will be shown live, nationally.

Polling is only a snapshot of the people that the poll taker chooses to put in the frame. What matters most is who is motivated to head to the voting booth. It's true for CT, and for the rest of the nation. That's why getting out our vote is critical — and why we should all be concentrating on those efforts, and less at trying to pick our candidates — and each other — apart down the stretch.