A nice spin, but as an independent who's 2500 mi away, I'm actually impressed by Arnold vote count, considering the circumstances. By the way, what happened to the Dems majority?? What happened to NO to recall and YES to Bustamante?? Don't blame GOP, blame yourself!
This is an important point that seems to repeatedly be missed by both sides. The concept that the general public only has tolerance for ONE abuse of democracy leads to the conclusion that if someone is going to abuse it, your party better be the first ones to do so. The Republican masterminds have grasped this with alarming clarity. Democrats who voted to recall Gray Davis because he was doing a bad job didn't seem to understand.
My question is why Gray Davis got re-elected as governor if he were such an unpopular guy? Are people in California stupid?
I think both sides are doing this. However, events like this have a certain amount of flukiness in it. Remember the last senatorial election in New Jersey. Lauttenburg and Dems basically made the Dem primary election meaningless by doing this last-minute switch, but circumstances would have to be just right to pull it off. That is why we rarely see this kind of switch done
Because GOP screwed up big time in the last election. It’s just nobody really wants to talk about that.
Re: Re: Re: Please Welcome The New California Governor [R] That's certainly not the message gleaned from posts by GOP fanboys like Topper, Ian, and asf.
This made me smile, which I really needed. For those outside the California Reich - Pete Wilson:Arnold Schwarzenegger::Shari Lewis:Lambchop
Re: Re: Re: Re: Please Welcome The New California Governor [R] For that you have to question them. I merely gave you my assessment as an independent.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Please Welcome The New California Governor [R] I merely gave you my assessment as an independent. Which I happen to think fits the facts better.
100% of precincts reporting (probably excepting absentee ballots) No on Recall - 3,476,841 Arnold - 3,552,787 so at least we're spared that annoying whine from the liberals, that Davis got more votes. Now it looks like the liberals will be doing the Loney spin, saying that Arnold is a Pete Wilson puppet. But the bottom line is that this is an astonishing repudiation of the Democrat powers that be in Sacto. And Arnold isn't a simpering pencil-necked pusillanimous geek like Gray Davis, so the inevitable recall push won't work.
Let 'em whine about THESE facts: --A 55% to 45% vote in favor of recall is, by electoral standards, a landslide repudiation of Gray. --Arnold won 50% of the vote for govenor, even as he had competing against him a serious candidate from HIS OWN PARTY!! --Turnout in this election was huge. --The Democratic party in California is now in complete disarray. Nancy Pelosi, and Jesse Jackson, and Diane Feinstein stood on the platform with Gray Davis. Ah, the company you keep!!! Facts, Mr. Loney and your comrades, facts. Make sure you chew REALLY thoroughly as you swallow it all down....ALL of it.
Re: Re: Re: Please Welcome The New California Governor [R] You hit the nail right in the head. I am not a republican. I just voted on my first election and I registered independent. I certainly do not agree with most religious right issues. But on issues pertinent to small businesses, most republican legislators tend to vote on average 75-90 percent in our favor, while democratic legislators tend to vote about 5-15 percent in our favor. As far as our state senators, Dianne Feinstein is quite good for a democrat. She is at about 30 percent. Boxer, lets just say she is even below the average I gave you. And that is at the federal level. At the state legislature the numbers are even more appalling. Some democrats have a record of Zero in votes affecting small business. The way these numbers are figured is that small business owners are polled on issues relevant to small business and if more than 70 percent of owners agree on an issue, they compare our views to the way legislators voted on that issue.
It's the two party system at work. Most Californians are pretty moderate, but a large percentage of registered Republicans are really conservative, and a large percentage of registered Democrats are really liberal. In the primaries, both parties tend to nominate a fairly extreme candidate -- Bill Simon for the Republicans in the last governor's race, beating out Riordan who was much more moderate. If Riordan had been nominated, he probably would have beaten Davis. But he wasn't, so lots of moderates who are not big Davis fans would not vote for Simon, so they were essentially voting against Simon by voting for Davis. When a more moderate candidate comes up, they tend to do very well -- Arnold, for example (as far as people can tell what his platform is) -- Gore over Bush in the last presidential election, Clinton swept California both times, recent governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, etc. But the parties here in CA have a very hard time nominating these moderates because each party has a significant extreme end which pushes for more extreme candidates to win the primaries. And when the moderate majority is faced with the choice of two extreme candidates, they tend to hold their nose and vote against whichever one they like least. I personally haven't voted for a major party candidate for years, except for Arnold last night, and the medical marijuana guy who was running as a Republican about ten years ago in the so-called "open primary" in which my vote didn't count because I'm not a registered Republican.
And we should add that, unlike in Florida, democrats control the state and they were mostly in charge of the election. There is no J.Bush or K.Harris to demonize here. Democrats are the ones handling the elections in most districts here in California. So, are they going to sue their own people? To be fair to democrats, the people calling for lawsuits and recalls are mostly a few individuals who are upset at the results and are speaking out in anger. But I haven't heard it from anybody in the democratic leadership, except for some empty threats by Jesse Jackson on TV.
And you're a grown man? Pathetic. I pity the principled conservatives whose party in California has ben hijacked by a groping, vulgar film star whose lifestyle and policy positions are virtually anathema to their own cherished beliefs. As for those conservatives who yip with glee at this shining victory, beware what you have wished for -- unless, of course, you have no intellectual integrity whatsoever.
As somebody completely unnaffected by this, I have to say it is HILARIOUS! and great, too (just for the sheer comedy value). what next? Stallone for PA governor... he could campaign as Rocky? I can't wait t osee what Conan O'Brien has to say about this (he's gotta be must see TV tonight... I have to wait until Saturday to get him though, so I'll probably tape it & watch it Sunday morning) One small thing, and I am being serious here... voting in Arnold Schwarzenegger as your governor of California has turned your country into an international laughing stock
Very few people in California or the USA really care about what the rest of the world thinks about us. But you are right, this is great news for late night TV and comedians.
well, billy, a lot of Americans don't give a flying fvck what the rest of the world thinks of them, because they're convinced that they're the best and the rest just suck. of course, most americans have never been outside of their own country and would have a hard time pinpointing ireland on a map, let alone caring about what you think of us.
Hmmmm, this reminds me of another actor who became governor of California. I believe that guy went on to a bigger job and retired with the highest approval rating since WWII (66%), guess an actor can do the job!
Except of course Arnie can't run for Prez...oops Orin Hatch is trying to take care of that for us by changing the constitution. I will be the first to go on record to say that this whole thing is going to bite Bush in the a$s next year. See the problem is Arnold is inheriting an unholy mess that was created by both fiscal problems within California and Bush's national policies on the economy. In six months things are still gonna suck in Cali and Ahnold is going to start laying blame somewhere else and it sure as heck will not be in California. The other problem Bush has is that if he cozy ups to Ahnold then he looses serious cred with his fellow social conservatives. The biggest mistake either national party can make here is to extrapolate the results beyond Cali. It was a "political perfect storm". It will however have interesting impacts for the Cali electoral votes (see above).
I'm as conservative as they come, and I agree 200% with this. I'm mad as hades that all these nationwide well-known "conservatives" (Sean Hannity, Bill Simon, Darrell Issa, etc.) supported Arnold. They prostituted everything they supposedly believe just to get an R next to someone's name in the governor's office who doesn't share the vast majority of values they supposedly believe. The most qualified, articulate, and the man with the most integrity was unquestionably McClintock. The Orange County Register (a liberal newspaper) did a great endorsement of him. They said he would have been the right fit financially, but with the Democratic legislature, he wouldn't have gotten anything socially conservative through, and would have fit well with the situation. I'm just very angry and disappointed with all the cowardice and hypocrisy demonstrated by the Republican "leadership." I think I'll start a new party and run for President. Or Governor. Well, Mayor. Of my town of 300 people.
Read the other recall thread -- the large one. You'll find contempt for the former governor stretches broadly across the political landscape. The only thing that surprised me was that 45% of the voting population placed that much value in the ass on (in?) their team's uniform.