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The one thing a successful candidate NEVER does is to alienate the base of his party. Bill Simon did best when he ran in the primary as the "conservative candidate." In the general election he thinks veering all the way to the cultural left will persuade people who'd never vote for him in a million years to vote for him oh because he's not really a committed conservative and all that talk of being one was just foderol to fool the party base in accepting him as one. In reality its a desperate move that will backfire and end up with Simon being scorned by both the left and deserted by the base. The left already has Davis and the right who now has no one to vote for will simply stay at home on election day. Sure the RINOs will try to use Simon's election defeat as evidence the party needs to go left but the truth is Simon is going to lose not because he ran as a true conservative but because he looked like a "me too" Gray Davis cultural liberal clone.

I agree, which is why I view it as indicative of desperation and very risky.

OTOH, this passive pro-gay position does put him more in line with the majority of CA voters, and more importantly, removes the major stumbling block that would prevent many from voting GOP in this election. Conventional wisdom is often right, but not in every circumstance.

Please don't view that as a defense of his statements or strategy, I don't agree with him. But as analysis, I'm not convinced that this won't work for Simon. Painful to say that as a Christian conservative I might be forced into such a painful choice at the back of the bus. Now we have to weigh all the issues, and whether the net gain outweighs the loss of one of our most important issues. Sorta like the political dilemma Log Cabin Republicans have been in for years.

Glad I live in Texas, I really feel for you guys on this. At least this isn't a Senate race, so PERHAPS abstaining from voting in the gov race might be an effective way to send a message(though I hate even the thought of throwing away a vote). Whatever ya'll do, I hope you don't sit at home. At least vote for the other good candidates in other races, you can always refrain from voting for gov. In enough quantities, that WILL be noticed.