Volume 2 Issue 142
October 8, 2003
Terminating Grey Davis
Arnold sends Davis packing, Wesley Clark has a bad week, and liberty on the move
Well, the results are in, and it's a shocker in California. While Davis getting recalled was always a good possibility, I think that many are shocked at the margin of Davis' defeat and of Schwarzenegger's victory. One of the scenarios that commentators have been talking about for months was one in which Davis was recalled, but the victor got less votes than those who voted "no" on the recall (which basically means voting for Davis). Schwarzenegger easily bested the no votes, meaning that he has to be considered a fully legitimate governor.
If I were the Bush Administration, I'd be pretty worried, because anything that goes wrong in California will be blamed on the new governor, and if things don't get better in the next year, that could be bad for W come next fall. Of course, for the Republicans even making the Democrats have to pour money into California is a victory, and it looks like that will happen...of course, it's still months away. Who would have predicted that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be Governor of California and Grey Davis would be recalled a year ago? Of further concern for the Bushies is the fact that if people are pissed about the economy, they usually don't care who they turn out, unless they're kicking someone out of office.
One worry of those in California is that there will be a new recall movement of Schwarzenegger. While I don't think that will happen, it is of course a concern, and one that the state could easily fix by changing the recall law so that it isn't as easy to recall the Governor in the future. I wrote a few weeks ago about the problems with recalls, and I still stand by that argument. Some may say that the recall election vindicated the recall, since there was such a groundswell of opposition to Davis, but I don't think that is the case. In fact, many commentators pointed out last night that the only reason that Davis was re-elected in 2002 was because he was running against Bill Simon, who is a far right-wing candidate. Had the Republicans nominated Richard Riordan, a more moderate candidate (like Schwarzenegger), they likely would have won that election. In fact, this is often the Republican party's problem, the same thing happened in New Jersey in the last election. If the Republican's can't take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves, why should the they (or any party) get another chance? That's what democracy is, and if the people's legislature can't hold a bad governor in check, then we might as well just govern by polls alone and eliminator the government all together.
Now it will be interesting to see what Arnold does in office, and if he can handle the task he has taken on without pissing everyone off again. Last night a few folks on TV referred to Robert Redford's character in the classic movie The Candidate, where he plays a celebrity son of a former governor who runs for the Senate from California, the idea being he has no chance of winning, so he can say whatever he wants. As he gets corrupted by the process, and ends up winning the election, the movie ends with him and his campaign manager in a hotel room while a crowd waits for them downstairs. Redford looks up at him and says, "What do we do now?" Hopefully, Arnold can answer that question.
California: It's Arnold -
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-recall8oct08,1,7723169.story?coll=la-home-headlines
In Davis, one can actually see the worst type of politician...one who becomes so absorbed by the politics that he ceases to become a person. By most accounts, Davis has few real relationships with people, just political connections -
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-davis8oct08,1,7696706.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Therefore, it's not surprising that a large number of Democrats deserted Davis and voted to recall him. -
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-exit8oct08,1,1435120.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Turnout was high, perhaps near 70 percent -
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/08/MN309601.DTL
The election results -
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2003/recall/
And the full gubernatorial results, which show Larry Flynt out polling Gary Coleman, and porn star Mary Carey Cook far out polling porn star Angelyne. The last-place candidate polled 171 votes -
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2003/recall/pages/governor/
Look Who's Running for President: Bad news day for Gen. Wesley Clark, the most recent entrant into the Democratic sweepstakes. First, a report that Clark continues to give speeches for fees, which violates all sorts of campaign finance laws -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58717-2003Oct7
Will Slatean says Clark is an even more boring version of Kerry...and he shares my astonishment that's even possible -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2089468/
Clark has apparently also been the victim of "push-polling" in New Hampshire, which is unusual at such an early date (and I don't think it works anyway) -
http://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2003/september/10 _8pp.shtml
But in the biggest news of the day, Clark's campaign manager has quit, saying that the General has betrayed his supporters and become a tool of the Democratic establishment. Overall, the problem with these events for Clark is that he doesn't have much time to get his act together, and if these problems had happened earlier, he would have had a much easier time of recovering. Of even more danger is that Dean has become the front-runner by showing that he is part of a people's movement, not a party-leaders movement. If Clark can't claim the same, he may be damaged. Further, as we saw in California yesterday, even Democrats seem a bit peeved at the leaders of their party -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/politics/campaigns/08CLAR. html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57882-2003Oct7.html
From One Dirty Campaign to another: With the California Recall behind us, now we have some elections in November to have fun with. In Philadelphia, an already nasty mayors race was thrown into chaos yesterday when an electronic bug was found in Mayor John Street's office -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/6957314.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6959195.htm
Don't Call Us, We Won't Call You: The Do Not Call list is back!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58828-2003Oct7.html
Moving Liberty: The Liberty Bell will be moved to it's new home tomorrows. The one-block journey will take about 5 hours -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/6956757.htm
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m100803a.h tm
