Replies

Yes, it did work perfectly (although I doubt the "perfect storm" was necessarily planned that way - events often just take on a life of their own, outside of all efforts to control them). And, yes, SBprone, even though I supported Arnold all along, we need to pass along some pats-on-the-back to Tom and his supporters: For their support on Part 1 (which was crucial to the mandate) and for Tom largely staying away from attacks on Arnold in the debate and in the last week. He probably knew that his core support (the 12 or 13 percent) were social conservatives that simply couldn't go anywhere else - but would stay in the game with him in it.

In a funny way, he kept the coalition together, at least in part. And it was a coalition that could not otherwise stay together because of the particular make-up of the social conservative faction. They will never compromise, it's simply not in their make-up, and their standards are exceedingly high -- far beyond the reach of the remaining 85-90% of the population. So they sit at home (as many did in the '00 Presidential election) or they come out for their particular niche candidate -- as they did here.

I don't know if McClintock had this figured out in advance or not -- maybe he did. If he did, more power to him and may he have a great future.