Posted on 10/08/2006 8:41:43 AM PDT by SmithL
Democrat Angelides trails by double digits in several polls and is scrounging for funds. Most analysts believed he needed desperately to impress voters, many of whom only know the treasurer from Schwarzenegger's campaign ads.
``This was no cataclysmic event,'' said Tim Hodson, executive director for the Center for California Studies at California State University-Sacramento. ``Angelides didn't get what he needed. It was not a rare moment when a campaign can be turned around.''
Angelides repeatedly invoked last year's partisan special election and asked whether Californians could trust a governor who has feigned centrism ``for 60 days.''
The governor's goal was to remain genial and avoid making any gaffes that Angelides could exploit. Republican Schwarzenegger continued to hammer home his campaign theme that Angelides is addicted to higher taxes.
``You have been so far for every single tax increase since you've been in office,'' Schwarzenegger said, rattling off every tax increase proposal Angelides has ever spoken of favorably, from sales taxes to higher taxes on farm equipment.
``My position is clear in this campaign: I'm going to cut taxes for people making under $100,000,'' Angelides retorted. ``I'm going to close corporate tax loopholes. I'm going to ask multi-millionaires'' to help balance the budget.
Schwarzenegger ads alleging that Angelides wants to raise taxes further are ``weapons of mass deception,'' the treasurer said. ``When you speak like this, you sound just like Newt Gingrich, you sound like Speaker Hastert, you sound like George Bush, attacking me and attacking me.''
He went on to claim that Schwarzenegger had raised taxes on the middle class by hiking college tuition and fees.
The governor parried with one of the night's more memorable moments.
``I think that it is very clear, I can tell from the joy that you see in the eyes when you talk about taxes. You just love to increase taxes,'' Schwarzenegger said. ``Look out there right now and say, `I love increasing taxes.' ''
The audience of about 300 at Sacramento State laughed hard.
The ``conversational debate,'' as it was dubbed, occurred on the third anniversary of the 2003 recall election. The only face-to-face meeting scheduled between the two candidates ran on a Saturday, traditionally a low viewership night, opposite baseball playoffs and college football.
Even before the main event, operatives for both campaigns began spinning. The Schwarzenegger camp e-mailed a list of what it considers shady acts by Angelides. The treasurer's camp distributed an ``Arnold translator'' to help journalists ascertain what the governor really intends to say. By night's end, both sides had distributed a small avalanche of ``fact checks'' to assembled journalists.
Schwarzenegger, a former actor, frequently spoke directly to the camera. Angelides, however, looked away from the camera for the first 40 minutes of the debate -- often giving TV viewers only an awkward profile shot.
True to form, Schwarzenegger mostly stayed genial and at times seemed to be trying to run down the clock by reciting past accomplishments. Even his zingers were delivered with a smile. A policy wonk to his marrow, Angelides crammed his answers with statistics and pitched new proposals. But he warmed up some talking about his family members who immigrated from Greece.
The treasurer said his family had taught him the value of honesty in public life. ``I'm very proud of the fact that I do what I say and I say what I do.''
The governor joked that spending time with the liberal Angelides was like ``dinner with Uncle Teddy at Thanksgiving,'' a reference to U.S. Sen Edward Kennedy. ``He's a great man,'' Angelides said. ``Thank you so much.''
The most pointed exchange came toward the end, when moderator Stan Statham of the California Broadcasters Association asked about how to keep California a leader in the global economy.
Addressing Angelides, the governor said, ``You've got to let the people know during the most incredible decline of our economy just a few years ago, you were part of that,'' Schwarzenegger said.
``Well, your policies were Bush policies,'' Angelides interjected. ``and I prefer Clinton to Bush any day.''
``No, no, don't talk about Bush,'' Schwarzenegger retorted, ``because if you want to do that, go to Iowa,'' as a presidential aspirant.
``You went to Ohio, governor, I didn't. You stood with President Bush and you helped him get re-elected. And we didn't even get a T-shirt,'' Angelides said to laughter.
The one and only debate was structured in a way that didn't encourage a lot of confrontation. Instead of standing at podiums, the candidates sat at a table, on either side of the moderator.
With a month until election day, both men are scheduled to campaign in Los Angeles today.
The most telling moment was when Arnold asked Angelides to say what was the funniest thing in his campaign. He told how nice it was to have his family on the campaign trail with him He obviously has no sense of humor at all, but he sure is funny looking, himself!
I saw this debate on C-SPAN, and they were not supposed to have any opening statements. Right off the bat, both candidates began with opening statements. The whole debate format was very strange compared to most debate formats, but, then again, we are talking about the state of California.
I'm glad to see their analysis is basically on point.
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