Californians, do you think Davis can beat Arnold?

[VoteClark]

Arnold changed his mind and will run for Cali Governor. Will you vote for the recall? Will Gray hang on to his seat?

[cherryperry]

1. What a scary turn of events!

Remember, we are in the state that elected Ronnie Raygun, so I don't know what to think! What a disaster if Arnie actually becomes governor ... I will do everything in my (little) power to try to keep that from happening. :wtf:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

13. About Reagan...

:wtf: are you talking about. Reagan was elected 40 years ago. The state has changed drastically since then.
The Dems have the advantage here and must work to keep it.

[BearFlagDemocrat]

2. Hard to say.

If Davis can get people totally sickened on the recall, he has a shot. The problem is that it's not Davis vs. Schwartzenneger(???), it's Davis vs. Davis, and oh by the way, who do you want to replace him with. So Davis can smear the replacement candidates all he wants (and undoubtedly will), but his root problem is that he's an unpopular governor, and he has to give people a reason to vote *for* him (against the recall). So far he hasn't, and I don't see any strategies for that.

I hate to say it (I really, really do) but Arnold looks like the odds-on favorite right now. He's got name recognition out the butt, he's moderate enough to attract Dems and Independents, and Californians really don't care about stuff like drugs and hookers. :)

[Dimsdale]

8. Help me out here.

Just sum it up for this Pennsylvanian, will ya? How is it that Davis was re-elected? Is he now, so soon after the election, so bad that a recall is critical?
All I see here is another project to spread the blight by Puke Central. Anything to get Ca. over to The Simple Simian in '04. Is this whole fucking joke in any way connected to The Club for Growth?

[VoteClark]

9. Well here is what will happen.

Davis will be recalled, Then Arnold will be recalled, then Davis will be back, then Arnold will be back, then Davis, then Arnold, then Davis. Eventually the public will say, hey, we need an election where the winner needs to get 50% of the vote and should stay for 4 years regardless of if we like them or not, and we can vote them out in 4 years if someone better comes along. Until then, they are screwed.


J4Clark

[deandem215]

3. Davis is toast...time for Feinstein to changer her mind

[SaveElmer]

4. Blessing in Disguise ?

In purely cold political terms, this could be a blessing for the Democrats.

California is in crappy shape financially. While Gray Davis is not the most imaginative politician in the world, the condition of the finances is more due to Proposition 13 and other circumstances beyond his control, than to any failure on his part. Arnold is a neophyte, he has never run anything more than his mouth. Given that the state is a disaster financially anyway, and is not likely to improve no matter who is in there...it might be better for the Democrats in the long run for a bumbler like Arnold to be in there when it happens. It could hand the state to the Democrats as far as the eye can see.

[Gman2]

6. Arnold.

We are talking arnold the pig on green acres, right? We need to find that smear orchestrated by the WH. If we can force the energy meetings public, it will all be clear.

[mndemocrat_29]

12. The state is fairly liberal

And I'm never in favor of electing Republicans, in good economic times or bad. The whole point of electing people is to chose the best candidate for the job. In the state, I think that Arianna Huffington will be the best candidate (with Gray Davis coming in second). Therefore, if I were to cast a ballot, I'd vote against the recall and for Arianna, thereby voting for both candidates. However, I live in Minnesota, where we all wish we could recall Pawlenty.

[Kanola]

14. As a Californian I agree with you..

Let this bad Hollywood actor with no political experience even try and get things done with the Dems in power. He does not have the intelligence nor the stamina to pull it off. IMHO. If his acting is any indication of political skills he will suck big time, and the REPUGS will pay for it politically.

[MoonGod]

5. Welp... the way I see it...

... Democrats and people with brains do NOT want Arnie for Gov.

Conservative family-values republican types will be turned off by Arnie's antics...

So Arnie's mostly going to get the fiscal conservative/libertarian types...

Basically, the Republican vote is gonna be split between the Terminator, the Car Thief, and the Service Slasher (McClintock), leaving us an opening if we can get any kind of unity behind a single candidate.

[VoteClark]

7. Not altogether true, but you have a point.

I think that many Democrats will say, I will vote out Davis and vote for the Democrat on the ballot.

This would be enough to count out Davis and Arnold only needs about 25% of the vote to win.


J4Clark

[genius]

10. I think the Democratic Party is planning to show some of his

early R-rated movies in their ads against him. They were hoping for Arnold over Riordan.

[CMT]

11. I don't think it will have a big impact

Califorinians were very tolerant of Clinton's indiscritions and I think they won't make a big thing of Arnold having done some soft porn films in his early days.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

15. Agreed

This is California, after all. We don't have the same standards. :)

But I agree that Dems were much more worried about Riordan running. Same moderate tendencies as Arnold, but much more credibility. I don't understand what happened, unless Riordan just really didn't want to run.