Posted on 06/12/2006 9:03:39 PM PDT by FairOpinion
They cant be all things to all people, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides will have to come close if they want to successfully woo undecided voters who are key to a November election win, political analysts said.
Both gubernatorial candidates will have to fend off the inevitable caricatures Angelides as a tax-and-spend liberal, Schwarzenegger as a right-wing Bush clone to win the vast majority of voters in the middle of the ideological spectrum.
The battle for the middle of the ideological spectrum is particularly important at a time when party loyalty has continued to lessen. While Democrats remain Californias majority party by about 8 percent, the number of decline-to-state voters has steadily risen, from 10 percent in 1994 to 18 percent this year. The state has about 15.6 million registered voters.
This weekend, a full five months before the election, Schwarzenegger began airing television ads statewide in English and Spanish that say Angelides proposals for tax increases will move the state "backwards."
The ad shows images of birds, cars and Angelides himself all moving in reverse. The male voiceover asks: "Would you drive backwards? Walk backwards? Then why take California backwards to a time we never want to see again? When soaring taxes forced jobs and businesses to flee our state. "Thats where Phil Angelides has promised to take our families with his $10 billion in new taxes."
A Field Poll released shortly before the primary found Schwarzenegger leading Angelides by a 7 percentage-point margin, 46 percent to 39 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailybulletin.com ...
Conservatives need to realize what a total disaster Angelides would be and how much Arnold has done to turn the state around from ruin the previous Dem administration with the Dem Legislarue pushed CA.
Arnold is right, Angelides, would overturn all the good that was started in CA.
"Remember, Philly, when I promised I'd kill you last?"
"That's right, Arnold, you did!"
"I lied."
Without moderates, no one would notice. There just aren't that many of them. Most who do profess to be "moderate" are simply one of the many flavors of plain old liberal.
You were doing pretty well, until you slipped into that little bit of hyperbole. Yes, Arnold has stopped some of the nutter schemes, but then Davis did too. Frankly, although I will vote for him, Arnold has not been an effective governor, and has been a disappointment. Part of it is I think a language problem. Arnold can't sell anything that is somewhat abstract to save his life. He is more the sound bite action man type. That gets old after awhile.
Defining down mediocrity...
"Moderate" or "middle of the road" is fabricated terminology crafted by the Left to force the Republican to become more liberal so that conservatives can stay home and the Dem will win.
And of course that is wrong, as any analysis of voting stats would demonstrate. It takes a village, including some that others would consider the village idiots. Just who those idiots are varies percipient witness, by percipient witness, and thus is a subject of debate, of course. Of course.
"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil."
AYN RAND
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
Only to a liberal can record high taxes, record spending, record debt and less personal freedom be equated with good.
Only to a liberal!
Some friends of ours bought mountain property to build a vacation home ~ but it seemed impossible to dig a foundation due to solid rock.
My friend insisted that they try anyway, and lo and behold, the rock gave way, within 2 INCHES of the designated foundation.
It seems a teenie fissure had been formed by a tiny plant which had slowly imbedded itself for years into that rock.
Angelides and the Marxist left are like that rock, and they are afraid Arnold will crack their stranglehold.
"If Arnold lost, it would stiffen the GOP to resist extreme liberal policy proposals."
===
What are they going to do, hold their breath, until they turn blue?
The Dem Legislature has been able to pass bills with no Republican support -- remember the bills that Arnold vetoed and a Dem governor would sign.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.