Posted on 11/04/2010 6:35:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
At his post-victory news conference Wednesday morning, Governor elect Jerry Brown showed why he won the election with a million votes to spare. He's steeped in the issues, he listens to what is happening on the ground, and he's not afraid to mix it up.
Now, I don't agree with Brown on a number of issues. But in the course of the campaign, I rarely got the feeling that Meg Whitman was listening to anyone other than her consultants or that she was even curious. California needs a strong governor; Whitman showed them a wind-up doll.
Worse, the former eBay CEO spent most of the campaign ducking. She often ducked reporters' questions. She ducked all but one primary debate. She ducked her responsibility to look beyond the spreadsheet.
Now it may be that if Whitman had run a great campaign, she would have lost anyway. California is a solidly Democratic state. Voters here rejected the red wave that washed over other states, and it is possible that anti-tea party sentiment buoyed the Democrats to victory.
(I thought Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina ran a much better race than Whitman, yet Fiorina garnered a mere 67,000 more votes than Whitman -- and also lost big.)
We'll never know what would have happened if Whitman ran a great campaign because she didn't. Whitman's profligacy in pouring $141 million of her own money undercut her claim that she would be a cost-cutter. (When Whitman conceded the governor's race, she looked as if she were going to cry. I'd be bawling like a baby if I had spent $140 million to get trounced as soundly as she was.)
In September, Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo told The San Francisco Chronicle, "People were toying with the idea of voting for Whitman." Some Republicans will blame the Nicky Diaz Santillan story for Whitman's demise. But I think that by the time voters learned that Whitman had hired and fired an illegal immigrant housekeeper, they already had decided there was no "there there."
I don't see a way out for the California Republican Party.
"The party depended on Meg," Abel Maldonado, who lost his bid to hold onto the lieutenant governorship, told me. "There's no secret. The party's in a wheelchair and we have a respirator on it."
Whitman was rich, and for reasons unknown, she thought she would be a swell candidate for governor.
Republicans in the fellow big-shot club decided to throw raised buds in her path. They didn't care about her spotty voting record, history of donating to Democrats or the fact that she'd never run for anything. They saw themselves as big-picture people.
Consultants queued up with their hands out, proffering money-sucking strategies. Whether Whitman won or lost, they'd be cashing big checks through November. With all their clout behind her, Whitman essentially had won the GOP primary before a single vote was cast.
You watch. In four years, the folks behind Whitman Inc. will find another rich sucker who just discovered politics and wants to make a big-splash career move. And they won't care if that candidate is a drag on the ticket because they'll have got theirs.
Californians are going to cry when the rest of the country recovers from this recession and they don't because their state is run by idiots and thugs.
Did anyone really expect California to elect a conservative, Tea Party type Governor? California and Massachusetts = “The Land of The Hopelessly Lost”.
The Golden State turns Brown.
California better learn to live on a budget. No Bailouts.
He’s steeped in something...
Productive Californians need to stop feeding the monkeys and move themselves and their businesses out of that state.
The problem with CA is that, as its policies become whackier and more business/growth unfriendly, the people it’s been squeezing to pay for those policies leave. And the more of those people who leave, the fewer sane voters there are, and the more likely more nutty policies will be implemented in the future.
I strongly believe that no state should receive more in federal funds than its taxpayers pay, minus that percentage of federal operating costs. CA should not benefit from redistribution of wealth from other states.
But, when a state gets used to living in liberal hell - it's hard to break the habit!
“Did anyone really expect California to elect a conservative, Tea Party type Governor?”
Whitman was neither.
If one had $140 million to spend freely then I don’t think one would be bawling like a baby if they lost it. Chump change I would think.
California and Massachusetts and Maryland = “The Land of The Hopelessly Lost”.
Nothing but Moon Beams and they don’t produce wealth.
It should be sinking in by now that running as a progressive results in DEFEAT.
The same result for Fiorina who took the same “moderate” stand, hoping that independent voters would flock to them.Well thats not the case.
The Karl Rove model is officially “history”.
If Republicans do not join the conservative camp, they soon will be “history”.That's what the million dollar boondoggle campaigns of Whitman and Fiorina tell us.
The same can be said for Massachusetts races.
Heh. California is about to confirm the definition of insanity. I just hope the GOP stands firm and refuses to offer any bailout to them.
You don’t get it....
In states where the democrats/leftists outnumber the conservatives you are not going to win elections with Tea Party types. Wanna argue that? Try running liberals in deep Red states and see what happens.
No, all that sinks in with the idiots in charge is that now no Republican can possibly ever win there since the liberal ones lose.
A Chris Christie type could get elected there in a walk. However, the result would likely not be the same as NJ, because with the ballot measure system in CA, the state is basically ungovernable. It is a perfect example of how direct democracy does not work. People vote for spending increases and won’t vote for tax increases. It’s a mess.
Meg Whitman is no conservative, nor a "tea party type".
Honestly, I am glad we won’t have RINO fingerprints on the California fiscal trainwreck. Let Brown, his Sacramento cronies and the public employee unions own this thing lock, stock and barrel. Here in Virginia public employees are forbidden by law from unionizing for collective bargaining purposes. Over time this has been critical in maintaining our comparatively strong economy and honest elections. I hope Governor McDonnell has his Director of Business Recruitment on his way to California to pick over the bones. I know he will strongly resist a federal bailout for the man-made disaster which is California.
I don't know if the rest of the country realizes how many illegal voters there are here as well. I had to almost force the poll worker to inspect my drivers license and passport. She look somewhat offended.
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