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Arnold's campaign bus has been roaring up the state, attracting mobs of supporters whereever it stops. But what's it like to be at an Arnold rally? What does he look like, sound like, seem like? A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an Arnold rally. Due to the huge size of the video, I've had some trouble uploading it to my site. But now, just in time for the election, my video of an Arnold rally is ready. Click on the link above to read my first-person account and download the video. Since it's...

Mike Shelton, Cartoonist The Orange County Register

<p>SACRAMENTO -- Setting the stage for a post-election legal challenge to the recall vote, Democrats are set to launch a national fund-raising campaign today to help pay for any legal action needed if the election on Gov. Davis' future is close.</p>

[Editorial] Sean, Sean, Sean... From the very minute that Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for Governor of California, Sean Hannity's behavior has been more like a star struck groupie than a professional commentator or political pundit. Sean has admitted many times, on both his radio and television shows, that his views are much closer to those of State Senator Tom McClintock, the real conservative in the race. Yet, Hannity supports Arnold. He insists that he "hasn't endorsed anyone," but it's clear who his horse is in this race. Hey, we like Arnold too--and if McClintock wasn't running, we'd support him...

DOONESBURY DOONESBURY

<p>Los Angeles -- Gov. Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger will pivot their campaigns dramatically in the final week before the recall election, believing that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has been little help to the Democratic governor and Schwarzenegger has enough support to win despite a tough Republican challenger.</p>

<p>ST. PAUL – The eagle landed on new governor Jesse Ventura's desk in the winter of 1999.</p> <p>It was heavy bronze, wings spread triumphantly - a gift from Arnold Schwarzenegger, then merely an actor with an eye for politics.</p> <p>"Eagles," the inscription read, "are like leaders. They don't flock."</p>

A judge Wednesday asked Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to prove that his campaign is contractually obligated to continue paying for television ads bought with campaign donations that the judge earlier this week ruled illegal. Bustamante is not disputing Judge Loren E. McMaster's finding that the $3.8 million from five public-employee unions and three casino-owning Indian tribes violates California's campaign-contribution laws, but he says the campaign can't get the money back from television stations. The campaign contends that $2.2 million worth of commercials already had run by the time McMaster issued his ruling Monday and that an additional $2 million...

Does electing RINO's as governor of a state really work? The same points made in favor of electing a RINO candidate like Arnold Schwartenagger were made about Christie Todd Whitman back in 1993. Rush Limbaugh then, like Sean Hannity today, urged New Jersey conservatives to vote for Whitman. Whitman even proposed a tax cut in order to entice conservatives to vote for her. (Schwartenegger won't even pledge not to raise taxes and has a left-wing economic advisor in Warren Buffet. How did the idea of voting for the lesser of two evils that turn out in New Jersey? A little...

I'm a reporter working on the recall, and a source at Fox News Channel told me that Arnold will be on Hannity's radio show at the top of his first hour at 3 p.m. eastern. Just a head's up to my fellow freepers

Who won the California Recall Debate for Governor? Cruz Bustamante 26% Arianna Huffington 4% Tom McClintock 20% Arnold Schwarzenegger 31% Peter Camejo 19% Poll Link

Roger Hedgecock, who is filling in for Rush Limbaugh, has just said that Tom Mc Clintock has reiterated his vow to stay in the California recall race to the end.

California state judge Loren McMaster ruled this week that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante violated campaign laws by paying for a TV ad campaign with more than $3 million from Indian casinos and unions, donated in violation of state contribution limits. Richie Ross, Mr. Bustamante's campaign manager, says the campaign has already spent the money and thus can't comply with the judge's order to return it to the donors. The controversy will dog Mr. Bustamante's campaign as well as raise questions about the disproportionate influence that Indian casinos now exercise in California government. When Californians voted in 2000 to give Indian...

<p>LOS ANGELES — California's top candidates for governor applauded the 9th Circuit Court's unanimous ruling to allow the recall election (search) to go on as scheduled.</p> <p>"We are ready to beat the recall on Oct. 7," Peter Ragone, a campaign spokesman for embattled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (search), said on Tuesday. "This recall has already cost enough in terms of public funds and time away from the public's business. It is time to move forward."</p>

The most notable feature of the opinion of the 3-Judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Southwestern Voter Registration v. Shelley, the California recall case, is its length, 65 pages, around 12,000 words. All those words to establish that holding an election using a mix of vote recording systems, particularly, punch cards, offends the US Constitution's guaranty of equal protection. The Court uses a great many of those words detailing the difficulties of using punch card ballots. Since it's clear enough that there is nothing inherently wrong with punch cards–-if they were uniformly used...

Real Clear Politics elegantly presents all the polls concerning the California Recall election at this link It seems that just about everyone pushing Schwarzenegger as the best chance for Republicans also feel McClintock would be preferable if he had a chance to win. McClintock is thought to most reflect their values and positions on issues. But “Tom can’t win.” A simple perusal of the poll numbers, though, belies this conventional wisdom. Do the math. If only 60% of Schwarzenegger supports decided to vote for McClintock, McClintock take the lead. Some examples: The vilified LA Times Poll: Schwarzenegger - 25 Bustamante...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore, whose contested defeat in the 2000 White House race has become a rallying cry for California Democrats, has joined Governor Gray Davis in urging rejection of the Republican-led campaign to oust him. Gore's appearance with Davis at a voter-registration rally on Friday in a predominantly black neighborhood of south Los Angeles capped a week that also saw former President Bill Clinton spent two days campaigning with Davis to help the governor keep his job. It also came as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reconsider its controversial decision...

IMPEACHED EX-ERSATZ PREZ STUMPS FOR DAVIS CLINTON PARADIGM PROVES INSTRUCTIVE FOR CALIFORNIA by Mia T, 9.14.03 Hamilton (or Madison) discussed the importance of wisdom and virtue in Federalist 57. "The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." (Contrast this with clinton, who recklessly, reflexively and feloniously subordinates the common good...

<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger's top fiscal adviser says he is drawing up several budget options that would avoid new taxes while imposing spending cuts that he insists won't cause widespread hardship.</p> <p>John Cogan, the conservative Stanford University economist who also drafted George W. Bush's tax cut proposal during the 2000 presidential campaign, said in an interview that the cutbacks needed to wipe out California's budget deficit would still leave spending significantly higher than in 1999.</p>