Posted on 11/04/2010 6:35:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
At his post-victory news conference Wednesday morning, Governor elect Jerry Brown showed why he won the election with a million votes to spare. He's steeped in the issues, he listens to what is happening on the ground, and he's not afraid to mix it up.
Now, I don't agree with Brown on a number of issues. But in the course of the campaign, I rarely got the feeling that Meg Whitman was listening to anyone other than her consultants or that she was even curious. California needs a strong governor; Whitman showed them a wind-up doll.
Worse, the former eBay CEO spent most of the campaign ducking. She often ducked reporters' questions. She ducked all but one primary debate. She ducked her responsibility to look beyond the spreadsheet.
Now it may be that if Whitman had run a great campaign, she would have lost anyway. California is a solidly Democratic state. Voters here rejected the red wave that washed over other states, and it is possible that anti-tea party sentiment buoyed the Democrats to victory.
(I thought Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina ran a much better race than Whitman, yet Fiorina garnered a mere 67,000 more votes than Whitman -- and also lost big.)
We'll never know what would have happened if Whitman ran a great campaign because she didn't. Whitman's profligacy in pouring $141 million of her own money undercut her claim that she would be a cost-cutter. (When Whitman conceded the governor's race, she looked as if she were going to cry. I'd be bawling like a baby if I had spent $140 million to get trounced as soundly as she was.)
In September, Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo told The San Francisco Chronicle, "People were toying with the idea of voting for Whitman." Some Republicans will blame the Nicky Diaz Santillan story for Whitman's demise. But I think that by the time voters learned that Whitman had hired and fired an illegal immigrant housekeeper, they already had decided there was no "there there."
I don't see a way out for the California Republican Party.
"The party depended on Meg," Abel Maldonado, who lost his bid to hold onto the lieutenant governorship, told me. "There's no secret. The party's in a wheelchair and we have a respirator on it."
Whitman was rich, and for reasons unknown, she thought she would be a swell candidate for governor.
Republicans in the fellow big-shot club decided to throw raised buds in her path. They didn't care about her spotty voting record, history of donating to Democrats or the fact that she'd never run for anything. They saw themselves as big-picture people.
Consultants queued up with their hands out, proffering money-sucking strategies. Whether Whitman won or lost, they'd be cashing big checks through November. With all their clout behind her, Whitman essentially had won the GOP primary before a single vote was cast.
You watch. In four years, the folks behind Whitman Inc. will find another rich sucker who just discovered politics and wants to make a big-splash career move. And they won't care if that candidate is a drag on the ticket because they'll have got theirs.
The Karl Rove model is officially “history”.
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It was always crap. A 22. caliber short in the war of ideas.
But Rove was and remains the most loved catamite in the neocons’ neoBabylon.
The House won’t bail out California. They’ll have to raise taxes to pay off the unions. They’ll be a line of cars headed to Nevada. I’m surprised they haven’t put in a bullet train.
Actually... California lost... BIG!
LLS
Let Brown, his Sacramento cronies and the public employee unions own this thing lock, stock and barrel.
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There is some good in that, to be sure.
We’ll Californians will get what they voted for and they better not come looking for a handout from the rest of us.
California “where the scum meets the sea” just reaffirmed itself as the lamest, silliest, least stable amalgam of dopes in the nation.
California and Nevada lost big. I don’t want to hear a word of complaint from them when things actually get worse......and they will.
If I were Whitman, my first wo orders of business would be: [a] Going too the neareast U.S attorney’s and DA’s offices, and swearing out criminal complaints against the housekeep for fraud, filing false written instruments, forgery, etc.
I’d then drop by ICE [with a reporter or two] and inquire about her deportation date [assuming prosecution is declined].
The I’d stroll over to the California Bar and file a grievance seeking Gloria Alred’s disbarment on the grounds of incompetence of counsel [having her “client” publicly go for a couple of felonies].
Then maybe a latte.
You have Brown the clown.
This is the dem game plan:
Raise taxes.
Provide more social services.
The consequences of which will be:
Massive influx of more worthless people.
Massive exodus of whatever remains of industry and productive people.
FALLING revenue and total collapse of the wordl's 6th largest economy. This ain't no piddlin' Greece we're talking about.
Sadly, a beautiful state must be sacrificed in order to demonstrate to Americans the folly of socialism. (Why we can't learn from the PIIGS I don't know.)
Frankly, I don’t think Republicans should spend another dime on Cali or New York candidates or races, nor should our Presidential candidates campaign there. It’s throwing good money after bad. These states are lost beyond hope of recovery. We should be concentrating on using our resources where they can actually make a difference.
Any Gray Davis sightings yet?
I'm not at all sure there will even be a California in 4 years.
Brown won in large part due to the unions. Their impact and influence in this race was huge. However, Meg’s problem was she just never came across as likable or warm. And we needed her coattails to pull the other candidates across the line.
Republicans can get elected here, but they have to be dynamic enough to overcome the huge disparity in the Dem to GOP registered voters AND the unions’ influence. Arnold was able to do it based on his star appeal. Yes, he was a horrible Governor, but he managed to neutralize the unions’ impact based on his “charisma” and star appeal.
Unfortunately, it has come to that. I don’t think someone knowing the issues is enough to win in CA anymore. It’s name recognition, familiarity or star quality that will allow a Republican to win. OR, the Democrat has to royally screw up and piss off the electorate to be removed from office. Perhaps Brown’s incompetence will do him in.
So, who do we have to go up against Feinstein in 2012 and Brown in 2014? We had better come up with some “wow” candidates by then.
What a difficult tough love position to be in. On one hand, I love Caifornia and hate to see the state slide even deeper into the progressive quicksand. But, a third time wih Governor Moonbeam? Re-elected Boxer...
Makes you wonder how Meg could argue for fiscal responsibility while at the same time taking such a high-stakes, high-risk, and expensive gamble running for Governor. Yeah, it's her own money, but for $141M you get what as Governor, if she had won??
California got what it deserved.
The “squishy” pro-abortion, easy on illegals/guest worker, Climate Changer-type GOP’ers is a recipe for disaster.
RINOs are going to be a dying breed if we are to survive the next 25 years as a nation.
McAmnesty, Grahamnesty, Collins, Snowe, Lugar, Brown, Kirk and their ilk need to lose via Primary with good, principled candidates.
I kept hearing the talk show hosts (some) moan about Mike Castle being on board 70% with the Conservative Agenda vs. 0% with Coons...
The Tea Party will learn, but I like O’Donnell.
What the GOP and Tea Party need to understand is that they will be under 300% more scrunity than their Democratic opponent because the Liberal media serves as free marketing, research and attack machine for the Left.
I want to move to SC and run against Lindsay Graham now in anticipation on 2014, if I had the money.
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