I'm watching the gubernatorial debate at the moment and a couple of things leap out at me. All five candidates (Bustamante, Huffington, McClintock, Ueberroth and Camejo) agree that there is massive fraud in areas like Medicare and unemployment but cannot say where it is or how to root it out. Also, all five are in favor of medicinal marijuana. Otherwise, I haven't heard a lot of consensus.
Peter Ueberroth, who had impressed me before the debate, has lost me by steering almost every question to two premises: Californians have to expect less, and we have to give businesses enormous financial incentives to relocate here. That sure sounds to me like, "Let's cut education to fund corporate welfare." Arianna Huffington seems more interested in promoting her status as a columnist and Bush-basher than in becoming governor — probably a wise move, given where her future will lie. Tom McClintock is running right down the conservative wishlist while Peter Camejo is handling the liberal one. Cruz Bustamante sounds more like a lieutenant governor than a governor.
But then so did Gray Davis in his part of the debate. As I've said here, I don't think much of him as a governor but I think less of the recall effort. It also bothers me that a lot of his unpopularity may flow, not from anything he's done in office but because he's bad on television. If you just listened to his words, he didn't make a bad case for himself but he just looked awkward and failed to project the image of a guy on top of things. At one point, he made an odd left turn and got onto the notion that people need to vote against the recall to stop the Republican Conspiracy to Steal Elections. I guess surveys are telling him that issue resonates with voters but it would be nice if he could effectively defend his own record.
I don't know if he's going to survive or get tossed out on his ass. But I have an awful feeling that whatever happens, it's not going to be because of how good or bad a governor he's been.