I Love You California

Greetings from California, where once again it's an election year and the governor is on the comeback trail. As you might recall this blog pronounced Arnold's candidacy "dead in the water" a few months back, but as so often happens circumstances have changed and the Governator is lengthing his lead in the polls and it appears I may have been a bit premature in my judgement. So what's behind this remarkable change?

Well the governor did manage to get a budget passed reasonably close to the deadline. He also named Susan Kennedy, a leading democrat in the state, to be his new Chief of Staff. He's given some speeches on the environment and proposed some pro-environmental legislation. He's found money for the schools, and colleges, and state parks, etc... He's made nice with the unions, shaken some hands, kissed a few babies and generally stopped frightening the pants off of the state's middle-of-the-road voters. The Democrats still don't like him, of course, and more than a few Republicans are beginning to wonder where his loyalties lay, but all in all most average folk who don't have a particular bone to pick are beginning to cut him a little slack. However, that said, if I had to point to one thing, one single factor that could account for Arnold's recent surge in the polls it would be this:

Phil "the Pill" Angelides.

Yep. You gotta love those Democrats, and on behalf of the governor I'd personally like to thank them for making this excellent choice. Not that Phil "the Pill" can't win, mind you. Arnold is a wounded politician in this state. Even so you've gotta be more than a little awed and amazed that the Democrats still managed to select probably the only politician in the entire state of California who could lose to him. Let's face it guys, Phil Angelides is to charisma what Dick Cheney is to sensitivity and warmth.

As if that weren't enough, Angelides further enhanced his chances of victory by announcing that if elected he will raise between $5 billion and $10 billion in new taxes. This only confirmed the belief already engrained in many voters minds that the Democrats never met any problem that the government couldn't solve by taking a bigger percentage of their paychecks. Combine that with the impression of Angelides standing at the podium surrounded by the state's most powerful union leaders, their hands outstretched and and their mouths speaking the words to which Angelides moved his lips, and you complete the picture of the big spending, big government Democrat.

Sensing trouble, the dems recently flew in Hilary Rodham Clinton to inject a little energy into the Angelides campaign. That was quite a scene too - maybe you saw it. An animated Rodham Clinton exhorting the troops while Phil "the Pill" stood there looking like he was waiting for a bus. I could only imagine what must have been going through the governator's mind as he watched it. "Yes! I own this guy! Ha, ha, ha."

But, like I said, Arnold doesn't have this thing wrapped up quite yet. We Californians must never forget the man's uncanny ability to walk in the sun in newly shined oxfords and step right into a pile of fresh dog poo. It's only July and there are still 4 more months for Arnold to say something stupid and send his poll numbers sinking into the gutter.

Stay tuned folks. It's gonna be a long, hot summer.