I will not be covering the bulk of President Obama’s remarks on 60 Minutes because he just repeated the same nonsense from his Wednesday news conference.
“Republicans were able to paint my governing philosophy as a classic traditional big government liberal, and that is not something the American people want.”
Then don’t be one. Joe Manchin survived by being a moderate Democrat. Mr. Obama left out one word in this sentence. The word is “accurately.” They accurately portrayed him as he actually is.
He decried partisan bickering while taking a cheap shot at Mitt Romney. Such is the world of the First Spoiled Brat in Chief.
Anyway, he is useless. I don;t have time to wait for him to become an adult. Today is about California.
While the Republicans won big in the 2010 elections throughout America, California moved further to the left.
Telegenic rising stars Damon Dunn and Tony Strickland went down to defeat in their respective races for Secretary of State and Controller.
Meg Whitman spent over $150 million dollars, and lost the Governor’s race to Jerry Brown.
Carly Fiorina faced a very vulnerable Barbara Boxer, yet despite sky high negatives, Boxer comfortably survived.
Republican Steve Cooley did win his race for District Attorney, but he was the incumbent. Every other statewide office is in the power of the Democrats.
So the question outsiders want to know is…how did this happen? What the heck is wrong with California?
As much as it will frustrate outsiders, the results were not surprising, or abnormal. In fact, they made perfect sense.
The national results were a rejection of Barack Obama. The left can kick, cry, an scream, because that is what they do. No amount of yelling will change the fact that the leadership at the top was seen as not getting the job done. All across the country, Democrats lost because of Barack Obama. He is a Democrat, so people voted Republican.
In California, the situation was the mirror image of the nation.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a failed leader. He is a Republican. Therefore, Californians voted for Democrats.
One thing I will never do is blame the voters. Barack Obama said that Americans were frustrated and confused. No. They clearly rejected him.
So it would be hypocritical of me to say that the majority of voters in California are imbeciles, as tempting as that is.
Supporting the imbecile theory is the notion of what Californians care about.
In Oklahoma, as we face a War on Terror, citizens there passed an initiative banning Sharia Law.
In California, as the state is broke, voters focus on…legalizing marijuana.
Think about it. While the state is collapsing, 40% of voters are concerned with getting stoned. Even if one is pro-legalization (I am not), is that issue so important that it merits attention in this election cycle?
So while the rest of America focuses on the economy and national security, California decides to just hang loose and get high. Real productive.
Nevertheless, again, that is not what hurt Republicans at the polls.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was an albatross around Republican necks.
Some people will question this analysis because Arnold Schwarzenegger is not even a “real” Republican. He is a very liberal Republican who is married to a Kennedy.
This does not matter. He has the “R” next to his name.
The lesson for conservatives is to stop trying to compromise with the left on core principles. It is imposible to win over everybody, but it is possible to lose everybody.
Arnold moved sharply to the left after his first year in office. He lose the Republican base, many who were suspicious of him from the very beginning.
Yet given his move to the left, was he rewarded with love from the left?
No. Of course not. He had the “R,” and was therefore evil once elections came around.
(John McCain was a media darling when bashing his fellow Republicans. Yet the minute he ran against a true liberal in Barack Obama, the media turned on him. He was a man with the left and the right upset with him.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger lost everybody. Meg Whitman was seen as the second coming of Arnold.
I saw Meg Whitman as the potential second coming of Pete Wilson. He was reviled at the time, but ended up a fabulous leader who is revered today among many Californians as an elder statesman.
Meg Whitman was smart, likable, and business-minded. Wasn’t she running against Jerry Brown, the leftist nutcase?
No. She was running against Jerry Brown 2.0.
(Joe Manchin in West Virginia was tied to Obama, but the voters didn’t buy it. He was a moderate Democrat, and the voters saw this.)
Jerry Brown was nuts in the 1970s. He was Governor Moonbeam. He appointed Rose Bird and thwarted the will of the people regarding the death penalty.
Then something happened to him. He did what many liberals refuse to do. He grew up and became an adult.
His stint as Mayor of Oakland did him a world of good. People expected him to be anti-police, allowing black panthers and other criminals to wreck the city.
Jerry Brown was seen as pro-police without totally angering the minority community of Oakland. Many police officers were shocked at his stances, often in their favor.
Then he became Attorney General. He actually enforced the law. He was not a leftist crusader. He put his head down and did his job.
I want to make it clear that I am not a Jerry Brown supporter. I did not vote for him. He could turn out to be every bit as insane as the right thinks he is.
Yet I would not be surprised if he is different this time. Enough voters were not scared of him. He was an acceptable alternative.
He was also likable. Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown tried to demonize each other, but neither one was detestable personally. So that became a wash.
In a tough year for Republicans at the state level, only a very good Republican could defeat a very bad Democrat. Steve Cooley survived.
The Senate race was different. Neither candidate was liked.
Barbara Boxer is loathsome. She is a vile, detestable woman. She votes the same way as Dianne Feinstein, but Feinstein is pleasant (and pretty much unbeatable). Boxer is a shrew. It is not her being liberal or being a woman. It is her being herself.
So a likable person like Meg Whitman could have beaten her.
In the primaries, Chuck DeVore was a strong candidate (I backed him). He was a real conservative, but one that did not frighten voters. He is friendly and likable. He is very conservative on social issues, but he kept emphasizing economics. He could have debated Boxer and won.
Chuck DeVore and Carly Fiorina were in a close primary, with Carly ahead. Then the race took a twist.
Tom Campbell was a distant third in the gubernatorial race behind Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner. He had no chance of winning. So instead, he dropped out and entered the Senate race. He and Carly were tied, and DeVore was a close third.
Yet many Republicans wanted Campbell stopped at all costs. He is a very liberal Republican, and the conservatives distrusted him. He was also seen as pro-Palestinian, making Jewish Republicans very nervous. Barbara Boxer claims to be pro-Israel, but she is a leftist Obama sycophant who stood up for Jesse Jackson when he made his Hymietown remarks. Yet against Campbell, she would have played the Jewish card.
So while DeVore was the best choice, especially for conservatives, the desperation to stop Campbell led Republicans to rally around Carly.
(A great parallel was the 1996 GOP Presidential race. Dick Lugar and Lamar Alexander were good candidates, but once Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire, everybody rallied around Bob Dole to stop Buchanan. The Democrats went through this in 1988. Al Gore and Dick Gephardt were serious candidates, but Jesse Jackson became a threat and everybody rallied around Michael Dukakis. Dukakis and Dole showed what happened when voters settle.)
I am not here to bash Carly Fiorina. Having said that, there was plenty of grumbling about her style. Many Republicans found her prickly and downright unlikable. This never came up with Meg Whitman.
So both candidates for Governor were liked and both candidates for Senator were disliked. It was a wash, which is a loss for Republicans when the top of the ticket is Republican and intensely disliked.
So where does California go from here?
Well a couple of propositions just passed could cripple Democrats.
One proposition that passed reduced the votes needed to pass the budget from a 2/3 majority to a simple majority. I was against this, because it will allow the left to ram through their agenda.
Yet all is not fabulous for the left because another proposition that passed increased the votes required to raise taxes from a simple majority to a 2/3 majority.
So Democrats will get all the blame for the budget because Republicans cannot block it. Yet Democrats cannot enact tax increased. This means that to pass a budget, Democrats will have to make steep cuts. The fight will be between Democrats and other Democrats. It will be bloody as they fight over what to cut.
Cuts will be good for the state, but nobody wants to make the cuts because it is electoral suicide.
Yet refusing to make the cuts just makes matters worse.
Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to make the tough choices. He dragged the party down.
That is how California got into this mess. Republicans acted like Democrats, and were punished for it.
California is not a blue state. It is a swing state. Barbara Boxer won 52-43, not 80-20.
Some will say that the left won big because they won in a GOP year.
Again, in California, this was set up to be a big year for the Democrats. They won as expected.
Now they have to govern. If they do as well as the Democrats did on the national level with Obama and the Pelosiraptor, Republicans could be back in power in California very soon.
Of course, if marijuana becomes legalized, the Democrats will win in perpetuity because it will not be repealed. Trying to take beer away from Joe 6-Pack is a non-starter. Trying to take the marijuana away from Joe Hippie Pothead will not happen.
eric
With all due respect, your analysis is self-serving and out of touch – the two main problems with the GOP brand. Until the GOP becomes less self-serving and more in touch with reality, their brand will remain tarnished and they will only win elections as the hold-your-nose-and-vote alternative party. That’s not much to be proud of, and it does nothing for the country.
Your analysis may be comforting for you, but it is not realistic. You simply ignored the immigrant and latino issues, both playing huge roles in that election. You ignored the impact the legalization issue had on libertarians, a large base in CA and one Republicans have to woo to win. You ignored the fact the the Governator was never all that conservative as everyone was always well-aware. You ignored the effects of running corporate candidates in a year when corporate America is as loved as child molesters. You ignored the fact that CA voters are relatively very educated and erudite and do not make decisions based on simplistic, partisan prejudices. You simply ignored every single critical element of the election.
This is the reason the GOP party brand is such a mess right now, and this is why they lost in CA: You guys have got to get realistic, get your feet firmly planted on the ground, and stop seeing things for what you want them to be but rather for what they are. The GOP has become all-ideology/no-reality. It’s time you guys got real. I can tell you right now that if you guys do not loosen up, get that stick out of your butts, and start seeing things realitically, you will lose in 2012. Period. The American people are sick of empty promises made by empty suits. Start governing and stop preaching. It’s annoying already.
JMJ
I can explain California.
Its a junkie whos enabler is a junkie taking out a line of credit from fed cartels.
Jersey, California is that crystal ball showing what the rest of the country will look like soon.
We should give it to China, eliminate the debt, and…at least they’ll build a decent border
Oh, JHC, Micky. California isn’t some silly cartoon. It’s a real state with real people who have real concerns. All those sleazy “Red States” that depend on states like CA for their bread and butter should get down on their knees and thank their silly, white, bearded God for the largesse that CA provides.
You of all people should know.
JMJ
Sure Jersey, whatever you say.
Cal is still failing and I thank it for nothing but but good sci fi and the porliferation of sleazy ideological bigots like you.
Those “sleazy red states” are our bread basket
Whens the last time you were there ?
Its turning into a freaking disaster at the hands of idiot policies and unions that you pray to
Micky, I know you obviously refuse to acceopt this fact, but those “liberal” Blue States are ALL DONOR STATES, while the vast majority of those “conservative “Red States” survive off the dollars those Blue States provide. Yet another example of the phony, sleazy hypocrisy of Red State conservatism.
If California was just getting half of the difference between even money and what the get back less on the dollar for their federal taxes, they could easily fix the fiscal problems they have.
California also has another huge problem – a stupid, misguided, simple-minded, arbitrary cap on property taxes. If California communities had the freedom to run themselves, they wouldn’t have to rely on the state for everything and they could pay their own bills, or sink and then have to reform like communities in most other states have to do.
On top of all that, CA is yet more proof that agriculture, while a vital sector for any economy and society, alone does not a healthy economy make. Modern agriculture is not labor intensive at all, most of the labor it does employ is cheap immigrant labor, generates little state tax revenues, and thanks to free trade, the profit margins are tiny, allowing only for large corporate farms to be viable producers, and the profits of those farms go mostly out of state to commodities speculators and their investors.
These are the real issues with California, not silly, stupid, self-servng, partisan, ideological, cartoonish nonsense about how Californians are all “Left Coast Liberals.” And to blame unions! In California! RETARDED!!!
JMJ
Let California slide into the Pacific, as some have predicted.
What the State needs is a major earthuake to wake it up.
What did we expect, with our State (and NY) the bastion of minorities
who see their bread buttered by voting for Democrats?
The State has been in declinde since Pat Brown left the office.
Those with money to invest and risk, moved away, replaced by
the people who are on the Statue of LIberty..the tired and the poor.
The University of Calif now charges 12000 in fees and the State colleges
about half. Yet, many students received stipends..if their family incomes
are below 70,000.
In fact, the recession showed something else, student loans
are being defaulted at an alarming rate. Who pays?
The LA Times today had an articled about members of insurance
plans who are opting for high deductibles..and therefore, fewer
visits to doctors. The idea is simple..lower premiums.
The net result..more aggravated illnesses (diabetes, high blood pressure
etc.). So who pays in the long run?
California is a marvelous state..I live in it, and enjoy its benefits.
I am a university graduate..and made use of my degree. But
the State has changed since I moved here..and not for the better.
Our drop-out rate from high school is 50%. One-third of college
graduates never finish. The trade schools are absurd.
One answer, go back to the 3 RS…high school.
3 years for a degree..and an extra for college entry courses
(forget subject A).
Colleges are money makers..that is their goal, not
providing an education which prepares students for life (career).
All the social sciences are a waste. Poli sci is a farce.
Two languages to graduate..why any? Speak English first.
Speaking of English, there are millions in this state who do not?
English should be the preferred, and only lauguage used
officially. At home, speak what you want? In public..we should shun anyone who doesnt speak to us in our language.
The budget at 51@ is a joke…and the Prop was a waste.
The taxes still need a 2/3 vote..so we will see lots of
fighting, within and between parties. Just more of the same
and worse.
The MJ proposition was doom to failure..but it didn’t detract from
the other props or general election. People who want to smoke,
will get it anyway.
While Obama is in India, trying to get them to purchase US goods,
the negotiator of the PA is damning Israel’s plan to build. They burn
and Israel builds. Their children learn Jihad..to a fault, and Jewish children learn Fortran. While Palestinians on the Gaza Strip parade over the
ruins of 22 settlements and dozens of manufacturing plants…shouting
Jihad, Jihad…Jewish (Israeli) children want to learn Torah and the 613
commandments.
Now we hear that the leader of Hamas has invited Ahmad to the Strip.
Next, we will learn Iran has sent 2500 troops in the advanced wave
to the area, as they did in Lebanon.
Yet Obama and his pro-Arab state department are critical of
Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem, an area taken
by Israel in 1967, AFTER, King Hussein entered the war,
even though asked to stay out. Recall, he did bomb
West Jerusalem and other neighborhoods.
Soo, Calfironia is going from bad to worse, Obama is in India selling
US made products, and his economic policy ( buy 600b in US treasuries) is looked askance by most everyone.
I will compliment Obama when he deserves it.
His (we all know) anti-Israel State Department, is blasting Israel
for daring to plan 1400 units in its capital city.
Hmmmm, I wonder how we would act if Israel returned the criticism
and attacked our building units in Los Angeles and other cities, whose
areas were stolen from Mexico?
BTW, re: Tip and Tyler Too? Recall from your high school history class?
The indians tried to carve a pice of the upper mid-West for themselves
as a confederacy. Of course they WERE here first, but dont tell that
to most Americans. The battle for control of the huge area…was fought
and lsot by them..against the US Army.
Yet, we Jews, who practiced our religion bgefore Muhammad was
a twinkle in his mothers eye, and had a presence in Jerusalem..are denied
our rights there..rights cemented when King Hussein, despite pleading from the then P.M of Israel..attacked West Jerusalem..burning stores, homes, and killing people. His excuse..he didtnt want to go against his Arab buddies, (UAR). Egypt If I recall, sent a few divisions to Syria..and was sending more..the better to surround you Israel for the final jihad,. the mother of all battles ( your destruction ). 100,000 jihad troops were stationed adjacent to Israel, AFTER Nasser ordered the UN troops to vacate ASAP.
Obama has criticized the UN Human Rights Commission for its
blatantly anti-Semitic (Israel) stance. Okay, but why equate our defense
with Palestinian aggression? We defend our spiritual homeland or
physical homeland, their agenda. to make it Judenrein (w/o Jews).
Its interesting that a Pales Arab woman, having her chlld treated in an Israeli hospital..thanked the doctors…but then told them that one day
Jerusalem will be theirs. Right. Thanks for nothing.
What could Obama do, if he really is a Christian ( said today in
Indonesia), hows about moving the USA embassy to Jerusalem for
starters? Hows about pressuring the Pales to compromise their
agenda..and make peace with Israel, and finalize their little state (Jordan is really Palestine-Eastern).
for Example, Obama could insist that the right of return be linked to the actual wording in the UN resolution..both parties have to agree.
I find it interesting that Mr. Erekat, the dubious negotiator for the PA,
refers to UN242 to justify Pales demands for the 67 borders.
He must think wse are all idiots. That UN242 calls for two states, one Jewish, the other Arab…with borders agreed to by both sides. Get it,
agreed to by both sides..not extorted, as we are witnessing currently.
Its called the game theory of winning. I make a demand..you accept or I will kill you. And if you accept, I move the goal post..and the game begins all over again, til I get what I want.
Since Oslo q, 17 years ago, the PALES have been threatening.if their
demands are not met. Now, its going to the UNSC to declare a state.
They know darned wsell, that that the US wont agree..and if they did,
who will take on the Israeli army..Micronesia or Nigeria. Come on.
Look guys, Iserael has 200-400 nuke warheads (see Wikipedia)., including 1megaton cruise missiles…high fusion bombs, cobalt and neutron bombs
and an arrey of Jericho Missiles to deliver them, plus land mines and
suitcase bombs. Dont believe me..go to the website. A Jericho Missile
can travel 11,000 km.Israel has sub orbit and orbital capabiloity. Get it.
So, Erekat, Abbas and Fayyad are smoking through their uknowwhats.
Where does Obama fit into this..he should tell the Muslim world
to get real..accept Israel’s Jewishness..drop the right of return,
allow Israel to control the Jordan Valley for awhile, and demilitarize
the W. Bank. (Israel can deal with Hamas, if left alone guys).
One artillery barrage and one tank sweep ( Merkavas and Abrams)
and its all over but the spoiled candy never thrown.