The Puppet or the Pundit? I'll take the Watermelon.

Ugh. It's 11:30 PM and I'm watching the CA recall debate on KQED. I only have a few thoughts about the candidates positions.

• McClintock is well informed, fiscally conservative, and quite a respectable candidate. But isn't he anti-choice? Oh yeah, he also wants to build dams and highways. These marvels of modern technology will soon be available in your backyard.
• Arnold (notice that I use his first name, since he is a celebrity and not a politician) seems like a Bush 2.0, beta-Newsom, puppet candidate. He's the best successor to Davis, because he will be just as cozy with special interests. He will bring nothing new to state government. It's too bad; to me, Arnold, like most celebrities, has ceased to be fully human.
• Huffington. Damn, you've got to respect her relentlessness. And her insight. But I think she's a better critic, than governor. Whoever comes next should hire that woman to clean house in Sacramento.
• Camejo voices my party's policies in a way that makes me proud. He blends moral outrage with pragmatism and intelligence. It's unfortunate that a candidate that won 5% of the vote in a real election is overshadowed during the recall election. However green he may appear on the outside, there's a streak of Red Commie running through his center. "Tax the rich" is not the only answer, and he knows that, but he says it so vehemently that it gives me pause. But not for long. He gets my vote.
• Bustamante is mainstream. He's got some good policy ideas. I've got nothing bad to say about him. He's probably the perfect liberal: incremental, pragmatic, smarmy. But I don't think he will do anything to reform government, campaign spending, or the process clusterfuck that is the state budget process.

  But dang! It was satisfying to hear a real debate. Knowing that there was actual substance there, in contrast to candidates' TV spots, was quite heartening.

  It's 11:57. The debate is still airing. But I'm going to sleep to dream of golden pillows and I'll leave the rusted scales of justice for another day.

  Arnold is such a tool!

  Posted by cbsisco at September 25, 2003 12:02 AM