I feel really bad for every partisan Democratic activist in California.
I can only imagine that they must all be moping right now. When they aren’t complaining about how much they hate George Bush, they must be spending all of their time bemoaning the fact that their nominee for Governor has to be the worst candidate ever in the history of the Golden State. As a matter of fact, and I really do mean this with all sincerity, if the Democrats had Bozo the Clown as their nominee, they really couldn’t be any worse off than they are now. As a matter of fact, they would be better off. Because while neither Phil Angelides nor Bozo the Clown have any real clue on how to run for, let alone competently occupy the job of Governor — at least Bozo the Clown is funny.
Watching Phil Angelides campaign since the primary has actually 
been pretty painful. Never once has he decided to approach campaigning to the California electorate with a comprehensive and consistent message. Since winning the Democratic primary, Angelides has failed to introduce himself to general election voters or talk positively about his public policy visions for California. Instead, his campaign was silent for too long, and then began a series of random "Hail Mary" passes that have all been reactive. Phil Angelides’ candidacy has been defined not by Angelides himself, but rather by his opponent, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor and his campaign team have successfully painted Angelides as an awkward politician, whose only original thoughts are of how to raising the taxes of every man, woman and child in California.
Still, you have to hand it to Angelides. He has found something at which he excels, and he sticks to it. Phil Angelides is just really, really good and being a horrible candidate. It is the one area where I continually underestimate his ability to get worse, and to sink to new lows. What is really interesting is that Angelides has a lot of very capable political operatives around him, and yet he continues to lead with campaign themes and statements that only serve to make him sound more despirate and hopeless.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard the latest ‘Hail Mary pass’ by Phil Angelides — so implausable that I first assumed it was some sort of spoof.
According to the Los Angeles Times Sunday, "The Democratic nominee for governor said in a telephone interview that he would take court action against Bush if necessary to extract the state’s National Guard members from Iraq. He said he would also urge other governors and members of Congress to join his effort."
The Times goes on to quote Angelides as saying, "I will do everything in my power as governor of the state of California to bring our National Guard troops home."
**There is more – click the link**
September 26th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Puh-leez, Jon. It ain’t over yet.
At least Democrats have a candidate with core values. The differences among Democratic activists seem to be his campaign techniques, not what he believes in.
By the way, what is Arnold’s stance on the war on Iraq? Does he support the President? Will he be by his side next week?
Just wondering.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Haha…if by core values you mean automatically defining themselves based on contradiction of what Republicans have defined themselves as. One of the current problems with the Deomcratic party is the fact that they’re a reactive party with no real ideas to offer, only “we’re against Republicans”.
It’s interesting to watch this election because Democrats (as above) still can’t realise that this is a state election. The Governor of California doesn’t have the authority to declare war, or deploy troops to Iraq. I thinks it’s great though that the Dems keep hammering on this issue, because hopefully by the time they realise they’re running against Arnold, and not Bush, they’ll have wasted all their money, and political capital.
Republicans may not be great a winning elections, but thank God (the earth mother for the liberals) that Democrats are so good at losing them.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am
“Worst candidate in the history of the golden state.” Shake yourself Jon, I know you remember John Seymour!