Re: Budget cirsis - both CA and Federal.
Marc,
Interesting post however I don't agree with some of your views.
Davis didn't win by a clear majority. If I recall, he received the majority of votes but it was closer than the pollsters predicted. It wasn't a clear and convincing win. Almost 4 of 10 voters thought someone else would've been a better leader.
Bill Simon was a poor candidate and almost any one else could have won if they had a pulse but you weren't forced to vote for Davis. Since the current financial predicament is due, in large part, to the unsavory marriage between the Democratic legislature and the Governor, Simon would have been a good candidate just as a gatekeeper, if you will. Vote him in just to veto the spending bills that are still coming. In many ways, I think that on a deep level Davis truly wanted to lose the election. Now, Davis has to face problems that he created and I think that it has doomed him for future nationwide office.
Being from OC, the Register reported today that Davis' approval numbers are in the high 20's. That is important because even the people that voted for him are dissatisfied only 4 months after the election. Put another way, more than 7 in 10 people don't approve of the way he's doing his job.
I also think that a recall petition serves a useful public function. The law allows for a recall and this is simply democracy speaking at its finest. The electorate have long decided that all good things do not come from Sacramento. The propositions that you see on your ballot are just such a public referendum, no more and no less.
Politics is a messy game but with Davis you have someone who, in my view, purposefully underestimated the deficit to help win reelection with full knowledge that it was much worse. Now, he's overestimated it so he can obtain tax increases from legislators that would ordinarily be opposed to them. He will use the fee increases to "fix" the problem hoping to regain his lost leadership while simultaneously passing along the increased revenues to those voters likely to support him.
Finally, I agree with you that the Republicans need to field a better set of candidates statewide and while I believe that the Republicans will continue to march towards certain defeat if they embrace the religious right, they need to get out the message that the party is big enough and better for all views, even if some are opposed to each other. They need to expand their base towards the growing Hispanic community, women and other voters that are traditionally aligned with the Democratic party.
