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Reconcile this opinion with the fact that a horribly-bungled campaign by Simon (a conservative) came _this_ close to ousting Davis less than 2 years ago. Sorry, I don't buy the lie that a conservative doesn't have a chance.

Because Simon was running against Davis. Davis was a piece of ____ his first term in office, too. Californians are just a bit slow to catch on sometimes.

And it's not because Simon or McClintock are conservatives that they can't win, it's because Californians like excitement and panache in almost everything they do. *IF* there was a longer election cycle, McClintock sounds like the man to get behind, he could probably handle a longer, more drawn out race than Arnold could.

As much as we hate it, we have to admit that, this particular election in particular, is in reality, a popularity contest. I'm not saying I like that, I'm saying that's the reality.

Even if Arnold were to drop out, there's no indication that his support would go to Simon or McClintock. That's not to say it would go to the Democrat either. A lot of Arnold's support would either just dissapear, or would go down to the second most well known name on the ballot.

Again, I'm not saying that it's "right", and I'm not agreeing with it. I'm being practical and pragmatic. It *MAY* be better to end up with "Davis-lite" (although I don't see Arnold being THAT bad), but "Davis-lite" maybe the only viable alternative to actual Davis.

Sometimes incrementalism works our way, too.