"A bit behind"? That's an understatement. Remember, the national Republican Party platform has changed very little over the past 23 years, and that platform on social issues is diametrically opposed to the views of people like Arnold, Pataki, and Romney (and before them Wilson, Whitman, Kean, and Weld). That's why I said that this movement isn't a "big tent" shift as much as a pragmatic one to just kick out Democrats wherever possible. You may relate more to Arnold than you would Bill Simon, but Simon is a lot more in step with the national leadership than Arnold is.
I enjoy living in SoCal. And not just because it is a place that has great weather and a place were I can drive to a sunny beach in a half hour, and the very next day go skiing only by driving an hour. I enjoy living here because of what SoCal represents. Look, Los Angeles may not be a traditional city with a cosmopolitan downtown, like New York, Paris or Buenos Aires, but as you begin to get to know it you realize that it is a collection of fragments of the whole world. In Los Angeles, you can by driving a bit visit just about any place in the world. Bangkok, Guadalajara, Munich, Jerusalem, Teheran, Saigon, whatever. You can enjoy the best each culture has to offer, because we got cultures from all over the globe in our midst. Myself, I can go to a cafe like in Buenos Aires, discuss Argentine soccer and politics with Argentine people, and eat Argentine food. I can become friends with my neighbor from the midwest, another one from Korea, another one from New York, and yet another one as socal as it gets, from Malibu Beach. I can meet a gorgeous vietnamese woman and learn about her culture, and take her to eat legitimate Ethiopian food. We are a very diverse people and that is our biggest strength, because we are here after the American dream. Now why was it that you don't like Southern California? PS: Plus, we now have a governor who kicks ass!
True. That is why I could not bring myself to register republican. But sometimes I have to also consider what is the alternative.
Your words were "The real story is that Reeps successfully manipulated the system to gain power." My response was that if recall is in the system, there's not a hell of a lot that the Democrats could do about it. We're probably a lot closer here than it first seemed. Well, yeah. The Democratic and Republican leadership are playing different games here. The Democrats want to elect people with views that uphold Democratic (big "D") ideals. The Republicans want to kick the Democrats out of office. The GOP strategy succeeded yesterday and the Democrats' strategy failed. Until the Dems start either playing the GOP's game or invent a better one, they will continue to lose.
You call THAT skiing? Bwah, ha, ha, ha! Just wait until we elect Karl Malone governor! He and Ah-nold can have a Cage Match. The winner takes all the Colorado River water. I wonder if now with a Republican in office, some of the California Conservative Diaspora to Mayberry & Hooterville; I mean the Intermountain West, will abate? Or maybe Democrats will now start moving out of California & into liberal strongholds like Park City & Boulder?
Is now a bad time to point out that I wouldn't have voted for the recall? By the way, how did the porn star do? Which of the less-than-serious candidates did the best? (And don't go for the easy joke and say Arnold.)
It depends. If you consider Camejo serious, then Huffington. If you consider Huffington serioius then Ueberroth. If you consider Ueberroth serious then Larry Flint. After Flint came Gary Coleman, then some guy whose name is similar to Schwarzenneger (which proves that some democrats tried to vote for Arnold ) and then our favorite porn star. She got almost 10,000 votes. Here are all the results: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s&u=/electionresults/static
Results in alphabetical and number of votes order. This is with 99.8% of the precincts reporting but probably does not include absentee ballots. Here are the top 10: Code: Arnold Schwarzenegger Rep 3,694,436 48.5 Cruz M. Bustamante Dem 2,421,319 31.8 Tom McClintock Rep 1,014,895 13.4 Peter Miguel Camejo Grn 211,595 2.8 Arianna Huffington Ind 42,442 0.6 Peter V. Ueberroth Rep 21,999 0.3 Larry Flynt Dem 15,350 0.3 Gary Coleman Ind 12,631 0.2 George B. Schwartzman Ind 10,880 0.2 Mary Cook Ind 10,017 0.2 which includes most of the famous names (Mary Cook is the porn actress "Marey Carey"). The theory is that George B Schwartzman got over 10K votes because he was right next to Arnold on the ballots. The ballots were different for each of 80 assembly districts using some randomized alphabet for spelling, but in all cases, Schwartzman is right next to Schwarzenegger. Notables not in the top 10: Bill Simon 7845 Leo Gallagher 4844 Angelyne 2256 Georgina Russell (georgyforgov.com) 1938 Bryan Quinn (same name as former Clash coach) 435 and bringing up the rear, Todd Richard Lewis with 172 votes.
BTW, Gary Coleman is going to be on Letterman tonight, doing the top 10. (According to my lady, who works on the same set where Coleman is filming a bit part.... yup, it's pretty low-budget....)
The first interview I saw on CNN last night included Ariana Huffington. I was hoping that the first words out of her mouth would be "well, that's it, I'm moving to Oregon."