A state of unreality
Speech: Campaigning governor takes credit when something else is due.
Gov. Gray Davis' State of the State address has been critiqued thoroughly, so we'll make this short. But it won't be sweet. The critics have been too kind.
Can you believe that Davis, the man most responsible for squandering billions on an energy mess that hardly could have been made worse, congratulated himself for good work? Or that a major part of the speech was about home security, when his foremost contribution to security was poking his face in front of cameras? Or that he took credit for putting 3,000 more cops on the street, when the work was done during a previous term? Or that he took no responsibility for leading the state from a $9 billion projected surplus to a $12 billion deficit? Or that he offered no specifics whatever on what to do about being billions in the hole? Or that he promised not to "advocate" new taxes and at the same time said government agencies and cities would suffer no significant cuts?
This governor, you'll have to agree, is not a great speech-maker. But he is a great fabricator. He also is running for re-election and is a great, or at least unrelenting, campaigner.
That is what he is about: campaigning and campaign fund-raising. Davis once told columnist Dan Walters, long ago, that his political hero was Alan Cranston because of Cranston's great, or at least unrelenting, focus on fund-raising.
Now, years later, that admiration has evolved into reality. Nobody could raise money better than Davis, not even Cranston, a former U.S. senator who died last year, in disgrace because his fund-raising had involved him with people who ended up in prison.
Davis is smart enough, probably, to raise money unrelentingly and not end up like Cranston. Still, as columnist Walters and others have pointed out, there is a remarkable connection between his collection of money and his payout of favors (legally, of course). Some voters are bound to notice.
And he may have outsmarted himself with his State of the State message. This speech, based not on any semblance of reality but on what Davis thinks voters would like to hear, was a State of the Ultimate Campaigner. It was so self-serving that even the most distracted voters ought to take notice.
If that continues, Davis won't necessarily end up in disgrace. But he will, and should, end up out of office.
Regards,
TS
Dump Davis!
Go Simon!!!!!
Click here to download the California Republican Liberty Caucus' tri-fold pamphlet on the governor's race!
It's a .pdf file, so you'll need Acrobat Reader... it's free, and chances are good you already have it on your computer. Try the link and see.
Print it using the printer-icon button in the Acrobat toolbar in your browser (not File|Print in your browser's menu). It's intended for double-sided printing using single pieces of paper-- no stapling needed if you do it that way, and saves trees! ;-) Print one side, then invert the paper and feed it through a second time for the second side. Fold, and sally forth to get out the vote!
Give this to friends, walk your neighborhood, take it to stores, give a wad of 'em to your school, hand some out at your house of worship, at clubs, at stores and small businesses...
Let's retire Gray Davis!
Let's show the media and RINOs that "It's the base, stupid!"
Let's show Gray Davis that money can't buy him love ...or re-election!
Freepers and RLC activists can claim considerable credit for nominating Bill Simon, so now let's elect him!