Dan Morain: Poizner pulling off the improbable as he narrows Whitman's vast lead

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/13/10 | Dan Morain

[Bokababe]

A funny thing happened on the way to the wood chipper.

Steve Poizner, the guy who was supposed to get chopped into tiny pieces, has shredded billionaire Meg Whitman's once seemingly insurmountable lead in the race for the Republican nomination for governor.

[Bokababe]

Whitman has run such an ugly campaign that it's hard to like her.

[screaminsunshine]

People are tired of RINOS.

[bahblahbah]

Eh, the Sac Bee hates Whitman... don’t fall for it guys... Poizner doesn’t have a chance and the constant RINO hunting does nothing helpful for your cause...

[Jim Robinson]

Go Poizner!! Rip that RINO a new one!!

[darkangel82]

It isn’t going to make a difference who wins here.

[afnamvet]

Roger that.

[Dan Nunn]

Exactly. Governor of CA is like the game “hot potato.” I’d rather not be the party holding the grenade when it explodes.

[Bokababe]

"Eh, the Sac Bee hates Whitman... don’t fall for it guys... Poizner doesn’t have a chance and the constant RINO hunting does nothing helpful for your cause...

Disagree

Whitman came out the gate attacking Poizner and she refused to debate. She fundraised among the wealthy and her entire ad campaign was an attack on Poizner instead of a promo on who she is. She also said that she is against the Arizona law.

Poizner came out for Arizona's law and for controlling the illegal problem, and only secondarily attacked Whitman.

Whitman is an ugly cross between Fiorina and Schwarzenegger.

I'm voting Poizner.

[Bokababe]

It isn’t going to make a difference who wins here.

The hell it isn't. The governor can veto laws if he/she has any guts whatever.

[stboz]

Ditto.

[shield]

Visiting my kids in Cali and Steve has some great ads running....he is very impressive.

[Yaelle]

There is a commercial on talk radio about some office sharing company, and it’s spoken by a female with a highly arrogant voice about how having this shared office makes her so much more superior to her competitors. EACH TIME I HEAR this woman’s arrogant voice, I mistake it for Meg Whitman.

Sounds silly but that tells me all I need to know, combined that she is not noticing the FOREST (illegal aliens) for the TREES (economic problems in CA).

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, we saw what it did to Arnold.

[fantail 1952]

Got her lovely 48 page printed magazine, "Meg 2010" in the mail yesterday....what a lovely bunch of crapola! If she would just take half the money spent on getting herself elected in order to assuage her overblown ego, and put it to good use, she would go a long way toward solving CA's financial crisis!

I don't have anything against Poizner, but he's got a lot of question marks too.

Can't anyone around here look past these two? I have a feeling that many of you will hear another voice in the last couple weeks of the campaign....Ken Miller is planning to use the occasionally successful strategy of using his somewhat limited funds for a real blitz for those who are not really satisfied with either of the top two.

It will be MILLER TIME soon!

[Bill W was a conservative]

the constant RINO hunting does nothing helpful for your cause...

“Your cause?” Did you wander in here by mistake?

I will presume to say that freerepublic is mainly a place where most would self-identify as belonging to the conservative movement. In case you haven’t noticed we espouse the irrevocable conclusion based on overwhelming evidence that after the last fifty years of liberal or progressive or so-called moderate Republicans political activity, RINOs do the Republican Party and the country more harm than good.

Conservative upstarts during ordinary times in the last 10 years or so have often stood not a snowball’s chance of going against the GOP establishment.

Thanks to the Obama phenomenon and a few other elements of democrat overreaching, we are now in extraordinary times.

So, have you been observing anything at all of the ‘09 tea parties, 2010 NJ, VA an MA upsets, Rubio etc., etc?

[Bokababe]

I don't have anything against Poizner, but he's got a lot of question marks too. Can't anyone around here look past these two? I have a feeling that many of you will hear another voice in the last couple weeks of the campaign....Ken Miller is planning to use the occasionally successful strategy of using his somewhat limited funds for a real blitz for those who are not really satisfied with either of the top two.

And I don't think that Steve Poizner is the perfect candidate either. But, the absentee ballots are already out -- and a lot of Republicans vote absentee like I do. Unless Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman both barf on their shoes simultaneously, I wouldn't hold out hope for a third candidate beating them -- regardless of how good he is.

I hate that it only multi-millionaires stand a chance of the governorship if they are Republican, but that is the way it is. It's why Tom Campbell dropped out of the gubernatorial race.

[psjones]

He’s impressive? Didn’t he support Gore?

[shield]

I don’t know...I live in Texas and just visiting...I have no idea who he has supported in the passed.

[Ritemind]

Poizner can't win Moonbeam. Meg can. Poizner says nothing of his current resume because he has spent his tenure hiding under his desk. His department is mismanaged and you can not reach him. In the Sacramento Bee political guide Poizner listed his occupation as business man. Maybe that is what he is doing, because he is not doing his job. Now he wants a bigger desk to hide under?

[Jim Robinson]

I’m going with the only conservative in the race, Ken Miller. But I don’t mind Poizner ripping into Whitman. They deserve each other.