The Good News and the Bad News

[Nederland]

We need to be honest about what happened yesterday folks.

We got trounced. Its not enough to acknowledge that Arnold got more votes than Davis did (and even that makes the dubious assumption that a 'No' vote on the recall question should be interpreted as a 'Yes' to Davis). We need to acknowledge that the fact that the Republican vote was split between Arnold and McClintock. Together, they got over 60% of the vote. Sixty percent of the voters voted Republican, folks. In a state that is overwhelmingly Democratic. A defeat this large is not the result of fraud. It is not the result of media bias. This was the result of getting beaten fair and square.

However, the recall is in no way a predictor of what will happen in 2004. The recall passed and Arnold won because the Democratic Party had an extremely weak and extremely disliked candidate on the ballot. The recall passed because Californians were pissed and they took it out on Gray Davis. When we look forward to the 2004 election, I see reasons for optimism.

First, George Bush is no Arnold. He lacks his star power, his broad appeal as a social moderate, and his command of the English language :). Second, Gray Davis is a lackluster politician with mediocre skills--every candidate we have running for president (except Lieberman) is a more charismatic and more exciting to listen to than Gray Davis. Finally, the same thing that did in Davis will do in George Bush: a poor economy. As we well know, voters aren't that good and determining who is really to blame for things, they just instinctive blame the guy at the top. In 2004, that's Bush and the Republicans, not us.

We need to learn the lesson of the recall, and that lesson is this: being right on the issues is not enough. If we are going to win in 2004 we need to have a candidate that has a broad appeal to all Americans. We need a candidate that is charismatic and good on the stump. We need someone that will call Bush to the mat and pommel him senseless. I think we've got several people in the running that have the potential to do this, and I look forward to seeing it happen.

[Homer12]

1. The Republicans

Always change the rules and then WE have to play by them.

This has to be changed, otherwise, we will never win.

[forgethell]

3. What rules?

We can hate what happened, but the Repukes did NOT invent the recall election mechanism just especially for this election. there is was, and they took advantage of it. we do the same thing when we can. the thing to do is become masters at using the rules to our advantage, and we should be good at that. We have most of the truly gifted lawyers.

[Nederland]

5. Nonsense

The recall rule has been around for decades, and the Democrats were also perfectly willing to try to use it against Ronald Reagan, three times. The reason it worked for them and not for us was because Ronald Reagan was a popular governor and Gray Davis wasn't. We just got beaten fair and square and you don't want to admit it.

[noonwitch]

2. Good points

I always thought that the election in 2002, as awful as it seemed at the time, could be good in the long run. With the GOP in charge of all three branches of the federal government, they should get blamed for everything that goes wrong. The economy, the war, the leak in the WH, anything else that comes up between now and then. They have no excuse-they can try to blame the dems all they want, but they are the ones in power, thus they are responsible for all federal government screw-ups.

[lovedems]

4. I am excited about our candidates as well

I think things are only going to get worse in the next 13 months. Everything is in the tank. It is in there good. I don't think for one minute Bushco. can drastically change things in 13 months, especially if we are able to keep them on the defensive regarding the war, the leak, the economy...Plus, Bush doesn't have any talking points about the good he has done for this country. Is he going to talk about all of the jobs he has created? Is he going to praise the fact that Hussein and Bin Laden are safe behind bars and no longer a threat to this country? Is he going to prove how he "changed the tone and integrity" of the oval office? If he wants to talk up his tax cuts, go ahead, but I think that is the last thing the american people want to hear. I am very hopeful for 2004 and think the dems have alot of excellent campaign issues (courtesy of Busco.) I look forward to the shit hitting the fan because once the dems have a candidate and the race heats up, I think it is going to be good!