Posted on 10/10/2006 2:58:36 PM PDT by SmithL
If Saturday night had been a normal one for me, I would have taken a seat in the press room at California State University, Sacramento, and, with a few dozen of my colleagues, waited on every word spoken during the hourlong debate between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic opponent, Treasurer Phil Angelides.
Instead, I was occupied by a family wedding in San Diego and, like a hundred or so other guests, blissfully ignorant of what was unfolding in the capital city.
It was just as well. Not one person at the wedding mentioned the debate or expressed any concern over missing it. And after watching a recording of it in the privacy of my father's home, far from the consultants and spinners who try to shape the opinions of journalists at campaign events, I think I know why none of my fellow guests seemed to care.
Political debates, like the campaigns they highlight, have become largely irrelevant to the voting public. They are conducted in a political dialect few people understand and at a pace that is out of step with the rhythm of everyday conversation. Anyone who really tries to follow the discussion risks getting a headache or falling asleep.
Saturday's debate was in this mold. The two candidates, even though they didn't face any time limits, spoke far too fast for the average voter to follow what they were talking about most of the time. They referred to past actions or new proposals in a shorthand that probably eluded any casual observer of politics who happened to be watching. And they attacked each other's character in a way that probably struck many viewers as childish.
Schwarzenegger, as usual, was too glib by half. For this governor, everything is wonderful, everything is easy. It's morning in California again.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
And just guess who Weintraub favors. Yup - Angelides, whose proposals spell DOOM to California's economy.
I caught part of the debate. It consisted mostly of the Democrat blaming the ills of the state on Arnold, including the financial problems, expecting people to forget that Arnold took over in a recall election, precisely because the state was bankrupt.
I'm not really a fan of Arnold's, but considering what he has to work with, a Dem controlled legislature, and budget deficits that won't quit, he's done pretty well.
Do have any documentation for that? As far as I know, Weintraub has not openly expressed a preference for either candidate. But from all the articles of his I've read, I would expect that he would NOT like Angelides much more than he does not like Schwarzenegger.
The Republican Party started down the slide when they backed everybody's slippery eel, Pete Wilson. When Wilson was done, the CaGOP was unrecognizable as the party of principle and traditions. Like a kid with the top down, Wilson raced around the political neighborhood grabbing ideas from hither and yawn, testing their ability to appeal to the mob with little regard to their cumulative effect on the body politic. Wilson was here today, reelection was always next week and next month be damned.
Wilson destroyed what little cohesiveness remained in the party and the power struggle produced a series of candidates without broad appeal within the party until the Orange County mob raised their financial banner and bought themselves a class A pitch artist. Not to bright but loaded with charisma and a sense of delivery.
The Democrat dilemma is more complex. Power is shifting from their union base in San Francisco to their union base in LA. Both a geographic and cultural shift. Neither group has recognized the supremacy of the other and the power struggle continues.
After Kathleen Brown's dismal performance, into this power vacuum slid two political operatives playing both ends against the middle. Davis and Angelides. Neither with charisma, neither with well defined core principles, but both with party power through favors owed. Davis was resented by many in the party and Anegelides is hated. Davis had the appeal of a school principal and Angelides a cockroach, reeking of opportunism and disregard for his hosts. Angelides is so inept, that his undramatic rise to candidacy through brute political force will cause both waring factions to accept a mutual candidate, likely an educated, popular Hispanic from the LA base.
Until then, the state is saddled with Dumb (Schwarzenegger) and Dumber (Angelides).
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