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Senator Barbara Boxer (one of my least favourite sinators) who was also unopposed and received 100% of the Dem vote only faired slightly better than the President. She got 2,246,373 votes.

No, she only got up to 82.1% of the Democrat vote, since more people voted for the 10 Democrat candidates for President than voted for her (2,736,198 vs. 2,246,373, or a difference of almost 500,000 voters who voted for a Dem candidate for President but did not vote for Boxer).

She got 2,246,373 votes. That's a fair number more than the President, but not enormous considering that CA is 'solidly Democratic' according to most(Democratic) strategists. And, all the Republican Senate candidates combined received fewer votes than she did.

The total for the 10 Republican candidates for US Senate was 2,002,211. It's less than Boxer's vote, but more than what Bush got (1,949,746).

I voted for a Republican US Senate candidate, but I could not vote for Bush because the nonpartisan voting Republican ballot didn't include President. That's one contribution to the 50,000 vote difference; another is that some Republican voters didn't vote for Bush.

"No, she only got up to 82.1% of the Democrat vote, since more people voted for the 10 Democrat candidates for President than voted for her (2,736,198 vs. 2,246,373, or a difference of almost 500,000 voters who voted for a Dem candidate for President but did not vote for Boxer)."

Don't worry ... I know she didn't get as many votes as the Dim presidential field combined, but my point is that she and the President were running very close in vote tally, considering they were both shoe-ins. I don't think that the GOP Senate primary generated nearly as much interest as the Dim presidential primary. Anybody following polling could tell that Bill Jones was going to win (I'm glad he won, btw).

All I'm saying, my friend, is that the case that Californians are ranting angry and looking for an opportunity to assault President Bush is just not true. His performance in California, as a shoe-in, was solid for Dim-leaning state. And, btw, if he'd been really unpopular he would have lost more GOP voters from the Senate primary. It's clear that even California Republicans are pretty firmly behind their President.

I don't know if President Bush will win California come November, but, with Arnold's help and numerous other factors, he at very least can try to keep in competitive. These primary results are positive in that regard.