The California recall campaign for governor is on

Dry run for the national race in 2004 in terms of political lean?

Interesting. The whole "we can win NY" thing is typical Rove- (Hughes?)-ism, but if they believe it, they're really overestimating, which is good.

He is -- or more likely at this point was -- an extremely canny governor who is good at three things in particular: playing the seeming center role, currying favor with a slew of unions and passing the blame off to others, as demonstrated with the whole power fiasco a couple of years back (yay Enron). Only problem is that he essentially ran out of cards to play after his reelection, and even that was more motivated by a thought of, "Well, HE'S a tool but Simon's worse." Then the budget crunch happened and now his head is on the chopping block for it. He ain't dead yet -- his most dazzling move was in the 1998 election when he came from behind to win the primary and then the election against Smuggo Mas Grande Dan Lundgren -- but this is a much different situation for him and he knows it.

Keep in mind that the state Republicans are playing a fairly dangerous game themselves right now. It's to their advantage to keep the budget chaos up in the air for a bit to make Davis look even worse, but the longer they stretch it out in order to increase the chances for a Republican victor -- and note that there is NO primary for this thing, so the GOP vote could be split anyway since there are multiple candidates in play, Darrell Issa most notably but Simon again as well as Ahnuld, and this could easily all boil down to a Davis win without having to try hard -- then the more likely it is to blow up in their faces. As I think Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte is a thick, meaty blowhard in the classic California GOP fuckwad mode, I'd take some satisfaction in him being dragged down in all this by default, but not necessarily at the expense of me being able to pay my rent.

"It is really wild driving round here, I mean the poverty, and you see there is no money, it is disastrous financially and there is the leadership vacuum, pretty much like California."

As if the state has been operating so well under his leadership, thus far? I feel any change would be to the state's benefit. As the CA budget now resembles a bottomless well (where money is tossed and never seen again) there's a time when a smile and handshake shouldn't be enough to save your ass.

Ultimate comeuppance? Davis applying for work at Mickey D's after losing the election and being rejected for being underqualified.

"I'm going to fight like a Bengal tiger," Davis told reporters after an appearance at a child care center in San Francisco, standing next to one of his most powerful supporters, Mayor Willie Brown.

"If the people of California want me to stand before them again, I will. Five times they've been good enough to elect me to statewide office. I believe in the fairness and judgment of the California people, and I think at the end of the day, they will make the right decision."

They can't write enough satirical books on politics to keep up with the cheez level of Davis.

"I'm going to fight like a Bengal tiger"

Yeah, imagine that being said by a man that is aggressively normal, indifferent, and couldn't frighten a hyper-caffeinated sparrow.

Whether he deserves to be recalled, I can't say, as I left California right when he took over in the middle of the whole power crisis hoo-ha -- which I do believe should be at least half blamed on Pete Wilson. (haha, "Pete who?"). Boasting being buds with Willie Brown doesn't help improve my opinion of the man, however.

Apt campaign slogan for the opposition.

"Grey Davis is aggrezivelee NOHMAL and INDIFFRENT, and KOOD NAHT FREIGHTEN A HYPEHR CAFFEENATED SPAHROW!"

Maybe 'Ahnuld' running would be far more fun than I thought.

in April 2000 PG&E sold their energy utilities business to Enron. It wasn't so much a swindle as much as unethical business practices which caused Enron to raise the "cost" of energy, which they cited then as a shortage/energy crisis rather than a meager attempt at bolstering their P+L at the CA utility customers' expense.

Gray Davis' role in this has been unclear, esp. as to what he knew when it was coming down and his inability to act one way or another during the crisis.

The energy companies are one of Davis' main campaign contributors. Davis took in about a half million from SCE and PG&E and about a $100K from Mr. Enron himself Ken Lay. Basically ignore party lines and follow the money - Davis has been on the take since the day he took office.

I have a dim view about the recall. I vehemently hate Gray Davis, but I'm not convinced that a post-recall chaos is going to be any better. So much has been said about "getting Davis", but very little attention to what comes after.

Heh. This sort of thing seems to be in the wind.

Hey California... Aren't we glad we did this?

what do you mean? without the recall, Arnold would never have gotten the political experience necessary to earn a cabinet appointment in the Obama administration

girly-men would still roam the streets with impunity

mapping out an alternate history w/ no recall - I think the prospect of a GOP gov just getting elected last election would be pretty high?

...unlikely.

http://i56.tinypic.com/34rsx6v.jpg

I would vote for Arnold a third time if I could

I'd vote for him over Whitman.

Whats Grey Davis doing with Jason Schwartzman

http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2010/12/28/recall-regret/

gray davis on the recall this morning
afaict you have to wait til the show's over to hear the whole thing

Knives out for Newsom: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/16/newsom-recall-california-447019

FWIW, I don't think anything he has done really warrants this. Compare his performance this year to Cuomo and then tell my why people fall all over themselves praising Cuomo but hate Newsom? Cuomo's response to this crisis was demonstrably worse, he downplayed the severity early on, called for lockdowns late, etc. Yes, Newsom went to an expensive ass restaurant when he shouldn't have and that does call some of his judgement into question.

Having said all that, it appears that it's troublingly easy to get a recall started here. Newsom's job is to provide leadership and not look like he's crumpling under pressure and I don't know that he's doing a very good job with the optics at the moment. He should be able to withstand a recall based on his own merits. If he doesn't that's mostly his fault.

It looks like the people wanting a recall here are arguing for it it because they think he took the pandemic too seriously though.

Sponsored by the same people who thought we shouldn't have to pay to maintain highways...