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The simon campaign is a disaster looking for a place to happen. Most likely the Bush people told him, "put our guy in charge or you get zero bucks from us."

Simon has been a total disaster at raising money and he will have next to no money with out Bush's help. He has been
told. "Do what we say or got get your own money." Since Simon can't get his own money he will try to comply. No one believes that Simon is smart enough to comply.

If you want to run your own disasterous campaign, you had best be good enough at fund raising to fund it. Simon is not. So as in all enterprises, he who gets the money calls the shots.

But it is not likely that Simon will win. I don't think he is nearly smart enough to do what it takes to win. He certainly is dumb enough to do what it takes to lose. Simon is one of those idiots who thinks "I would rather be right than governor. Therefore I will re-elect Davis Governor and feel morally superior all the rest of my days." Deep down Simon is certain that his conservative approach can convince the left that he is right. In other words Simon is a typical right wing idiot who lives in fantasy land. He thinks those on the left can be convinced.

Even a less than good politician like Davis can see how inept Simon is and take advantage of it.

In many states a Republican must get the registered Republicans to vote, and then get a tad over half the independents. In California a candidate must get the base, all the center and a few Democrats to win. Simon like a fool keeps playing to his base. That can not elect him. He must appeal to the middle and garner a Democrats.

Davis just needs the Democrats to win. In nearly all races the Democrats come home. It does not help to make the Democrats think the Repubican candidate is a Repubican.

Simon's problem if he really wants to win, is how to get the center and some democrats to vote for him. So far his pitch is "I am not Davis!" All Davis needs to do to win is to make the case that Simon is like Davis in character but Davis is right wing.

Simon has it set up so Davis has the easiest of all tacks.. Dave must prove that Simon is a hated Conservative who is also Davis's moral equivelent.

That can be done in 2 weeks of saturation adverstising.

They don't call him simple Simon for nothin'

The fools on this site never understand that you can't elect conservatives in a liberal state. They fail to understand that a RINO is Beter than a DINO and a RINO is a lot better than a pure leftist.

The Democrats may be mad at Davis but on election day they will come out and vote for him. Many Republicans think that Simon is a bumbling fool, but they will still vote for him. The problem in California is there are 6 Democrats to every 4 Republicans.

I am constantly amazed by the people that think the left can be persuaded. They think that if they just got to talk to Tom Brokaw long enough, he would become a Conservative.
Jane Fonda and Ted Turner would become Republicans if you just talked to them and they understood.

The problem with running for office in California is over half the voters would agree with the following. "We hold these truths to be self evident, the left is always right and government can solve all problems."
Unless a Republican candidate understands that simple fact and campaigns accordingly he is toast in California.

Mostly the Bush people are just positioning themselves to pick up the pieces after the Simon disaster is over.

The fools on this site never understand that you can't elect conservatives in a liberal state. They fail to understand that a RINO is Beter than a DINO and a RINO is a lot better than a pure leftist.

Incorrect. Let me illustrate:

In New York State, for at least 6 years, Mario Cuomo tried to pass a restrictive 'Assault Weapons' ban. Every year the Democrat Assembly would rubberstamp it and the Republican Senate would shoot it down.

Then George Pataki (R) was elected governor. He proposed the exact same restrictive 'Assault Weapons' ban. The Democrat Assembly, as usual, rubberstamped it.

But *THIS* time, the Republican Senate did not shoot it down. Pataki had INFLUENCE with them, he could shut off Republican State-level project money and Republican party cash. So the Republican Senate passed the bill.

A RINO is much more dangerous than a Democrat, because a RINO can overcome the party resistance and get liberal legislation passed that no Democrat could.

Seems to me you haven't been paying attention to his recent moves, such as moving to the left of Davis on environmental questions, and running Spanish language ads to appeal to our Hispanic near-majority. Not to mention his promise not to intervene on abortion issues. That's far from a "rather be right than governor" approach.

Remember, if there are six Democrats for every four Republicans, all you have to do is convince two of those Democrats to stay home and you have an even race. As you well know, Gray Davis has been working very hard (in a covert effort financed by the Simon campaign, no doubt) to make this happen.

If Simon can convince one more than half the undecideds to vote for him, he's just won the election.

In view of how repellant Davis is, including the downright fraudulent nature of his current anti-Simon ads, I think this is eminently doable.

In any event, your commentary would be appropriate for someone who was, say, 10-20 points down in the race, but not to someone who's either dead even or ahead of his opponent. This is especially true considering the now cringeworthy views of the LA Weekly, who said he didn't even have a chance of getting into the ballpark.

In my opinion, Simon has an excellent chance of winning. He's not perfect - who is? - but I'm convinced he has what it takes to win.

The Democrats may be mad at Davis but on election day they will come out and vote for him.

... I am constantly amazed by the people that think the left can be persuaded.

Conclusion? Try to persuade the Rats to vote for you instead of a REAL Rat by looking like a Rat. Uh huh.

OTOH Eureka!'s post #8 is on the money. One of the three most knee jerk Rats I know will NOT vote for Davis because he has almost destroyed the state already and probably will finish the job if reelected. This guy will also NOT vote for Simon--even in a Rat suit. (I haven't discussed it with the other two KJ Rats.)

You do have a good point on Davis's likely strategy of making Simon look as dirty as Davis, but do not underestimate the disgust and sometimes even rage against Davis.

Also, this state is NOT liberal except in the big cities. Yeah, I know the majority of the population is in the big cities, but 911 has caused a major attitude correction. I don't think we'll really know the extent of that until the actual elections, but there are indicators. KSFO has become the most popular radio station in our area--including San Francisco. KSFO is extremely conservative. In fact it is so conservative that you wouldn't like it because they regularly criticize the increasingly liberal moves President Bush is making. Those moves are a mistake and dressing Simon in a Rat suit is a mistake IMO.