[ElkGroveDan]

Other than the fact that PPIC is always skewed about 4 points to the left, it's all going to hinge on turnout.

Prop 73 which prevents secret abortions on minor girls, will draw out the moral base. They will make the difference (ironically) for Arnold.

[starfish923]

Arnie's got my vote.

[Wiseghy]

When I talked with McClintock 2 days ago, he was very upbeat on election, despite the continued negative news in the MSM. Absentee requests are way up, and GOTV campaigns are going very well and the internal and more creditable polls are good.

This could end up as a real surprise and disappointment for the 14% of the electorate attempting to retain their iron grip of control on this state.

[IPWGOP]

[Carry_Okie]

Arnold's biggest tactical problem is that he wasted over a year learning that "working with the Democrats" would gain him nothing. No matter how far he went to co-opt the left, they gave him grief for it. It was an arrogant delusion to think that he could do what no Republican governor has ever done before. Meanwhile his cavorting with less than stellar supporters has tainted his proffered independence. Given the meagre results, the public is rightly disillusioned.

Disillusionment out of that wasted opportunity is what we are now seeing. Propositions similar to these is what we should have seen instead of 57 & 58 when Arnold's popularity was riding high. As things are now, I seriously doubt 76-8 will pass. Those ballot measures which stand to pass, while he endorsed them, are not of his own making. Given his penchant for spending, we are facing the likely prospect of his endorsing a tax increase.

My bet is that even the CAGOP would reconsider its closure of the primary in such an event. It would be a fitting epitaph.

I predicted during the recall that it would take Arnold at least 18 months to figure out where the bodies were buried in order to begin an intelligent reorg with less than destructive cutbacks. I was wrong. He still doesn't get it and either thinks that the state is operating lean and mean or has no clue how or where to cut back. I think he's actually credulous enough to believe his advisors. That is where his internal dishonesty really harms him. It induces a blindness to others seeking to deceive.