Saturday, October 02, 2010

No Likely Republican Sweep in California

In California, we have two very high profile political races to be decided next month, the junior Senate seat and Governorship. Republicans have two women running, both wealthy former private sector CEOs. Meg Whitman for Governor and Carly Fiorina for Senate. Both have far outspent their Democratic opponents and both are behind in the polls. Does this signify anything about anything? Maybe not.

Neither of these ladies has any history of interest or participation in the political process, not even as voters. Neither of these ladies have any kind of grass roots support, with supporters of budgetary austerity or the fundamentalist Christians who champion family values issues in the pro life and anti homosexuality categories that are energizing the Republicans nationwide. They've given no persuasive reasons to anybody likely to vote for them why they should.

The Republicans might have been better off going with people like Christine O'Donnell, or Rand Paul, who have some legitimate differences from the political status quo to hang their campaigning hats on. Even if they didn't win, they would be defining their message, building their base and setting the stage for future gains.

If Republicans lose the Governorship in California, it will be a big step back for them. Jerry Brown, running once again for the office, is the only Democrat to have successfully served a full term in the office, since the election of Ronald Reagan in the early 60s and he was able to do so only by hanging onto the coat tails of his father, arguably the last of the powerful, Depression era, American regional, political kingpins.

6 comments:

W.C. Varones said...

Reddog,

Care to do a little teabagging with me on Sunday?

reddog said...

I had to go to a birthday party.

Contrary said...

California will continue voting for democrats until it totally collapses. And Bush will get the blame.

W.C. Varones said...

Reddog,

I meant this Sunday, Oct 10. Can you make it?

W.C.

Contrary said...

Have you decided to stay in Branson permanently or what?

reddog said...

I don't feel in any rush to publish, Gary. I've only got four readers and they aren't going anywhere.

Thank you for expressing an interest though. I'll put up a few posts. I'm not doing anything special.

You know. Missouri was real pretty and the people were nice. They have a lot of dams around Branson. Lots of long meandering finger lakes. Be nice to live there. Get a little skiff with a tiny outboard, maybe even just an electric trolling motor with a couple big, deep cycle, marine batteries hooked up.

My wife would hate it there though after a little while. I didn't look at any real estate while I was there but I bet there are some good deals available.I probably won't be moving to Branson any time soon but a fella could do worse.

The biggest drawback is that there are no big, high traffic airports for a few hundred miles in any direction. You can come and go from the smaller airports but the tickets are expensive and every flight out is to a regional hub for a final destination.

You know where one of the biggest commercial airports is around there? Bentonville, Arkansas. You know why? It's the world headquarters of Walmart. I bet you can get out to China from there pretty easy.