Dan Walters is right, the clock is ticking, and Phil Angelides doesn’t appear to have a rabbit he can pull out of a hat to make this election close. Stunningly, he doesn’t even appear to have a campaign anywhere, erasing from memory the Gubernatorial campaign of Dan Lungren in 1998 as the worst statewide effort in history.
Angelides incompetence has allowed the Governor to ignore conservatives, sign offensive legislation and occupy the entire center left spectrum – leaving only room to his right, where Angelides cannot tread. Union contracts have been signed, education is fully funded, the State is running billions in deficits, the minimum wage is being increased, greenhouse gas bills are being signed, transvestites have new rights in the workplace and billions more in borrowing are on the November ballot. The only antidote to this is conservatism, and it is nowhere to be found in the choice for Governor.
With the signing of the bill handing Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa control of LA unified the Mayor’s silence is all but assured this fall – offering only the "headfake" level of support for his fellow Democrat.
What I hear most often from friends and others in the local community is that "they don’t like what the Governor is doing, but they have no other choices" so they will come out for Poochigian and McClintock and will also put a check next to the Governor’s name.
If the Governor is indeed re-elected what will we celebrate? The triumph of Republican principles? No. We beat the worst Governor in American history in 2003 with a celebrity candidate without a prior political record. We are about ready to beat the worst Democratic candidate in California history with an agenda that doesn’t look anything like what the GOP believes in. It’s a hollow feeling, at best. The experience of victory, to be fully appreciated, needs an accompanying belief of accomplishment in the triumph of ideas. A Schwarzenegger victory, unfortunately, will not rise to that level of achievement.