Debate Season: First, Kill All the Moderators
In this partisan time, there’s one reform all Californians should agree on.
We need to change the way we do candidates’ debates.
In this political season, the debates for California governor and U.S. senator have been too rushed. Their overall length of these debates – 60 minutes – is too short given all the different topics that debate organizers want to cover. And the time for candidate responses to questions (usually between 30 and 90 seconds tops) doesn’t allow for much more than a very hurried recital of talking points.
In Maid Story, Time for Meg to Cut the Condescension
On the core charge – that Meg Whitman employed an undocumented immigrant – she has nothing to be ashamed of. Plenty of Californians have done so, knowingly and unknowingly. If this makes her a hypocrite, so what? Immigration law is so thoroughly divorced from the human reality of California that most of us are hypocrites on this issue.
No, Whitman’s problem is how she has reacted to the story. The trouble is not just that she’s had to change her story, most disastrously in insisting neither she nor her husband ever got a letter from the Social Security Administration that he appears to have received. Her righteous attitude — the sense she exuded in Wednesday’s press conference that she didn’t and couldn’t have done the wrong thing – has turned this into a morality play about Whitman’s character. This is bad news for Whitman in two ways.
It’s hard to emerge as the hero of such plays. And the whole story is off message — voters don’t really care about Whitman personally. They care about what she might be able to do for them as governor.
The Debate: Who Would You Prefer to Manage Your Decline?
"Who would you rather have a beer with?" might have been the deciding question in previous political races. The California governor’s race is different. The state is a mess, and getting messier. Neither of the two leading contenders has a real plan – or any intention – of doing much more than managing the state’s decline.
So the question in this race might be: Which candidate would you prefer to drive your ship on a one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean?
That’s probably the best way to judge Tuesday night’s debate. Neither Jerry Brown nor Meg Whitman offered a clear vision of the future. And both were self-aware enough that they didn’t bother to inspire us. These two aren’t inspirational. They each know they are enaged in a classic lesser-of-two-evils contest.
My Interview with Jerry Brown’s Obscene Surplus
I’d been trying to track down the most-talked-about player in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, but I didn’t have a phone number and I’d heard he’s too old to have email or a cell. I’d just about given up when the phone rang yesterday.
"It’s me, the Surplus," the voice said.
"You mean, Jerry Brown’s Obscene Surplus, from before Prop 13?" I asked.
Jerry and Meg Rely on Arnold’s Budget Ideas
Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman have the same problem when it comes to offering solutions to California’s budget crisis:
His name is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Whatever you think of the current governor, Schwarzenegger made many, many attempts to deal with the state’s budget problems. In fact, the governor has tried so many different tactics that he succeeded – not in balancing the budget but in showing that there’s really no way to balance the budget under the current budget system.
The Next Big Talking Point: The GOP Praising Cuba
Steel yourselves: you’re about to hear a lot of Republican praise for, of all things, the Cuban government.
Yes, it’s the next insane and deceptive talking point on the horizon, in California and around the country.
In case you missed it, the Cuban government has decided to downsize, in what is being portrayed as the beginning of a move to a more market-oriented economy. Since an estimated 85 percent of Cuba’s 5.5 million workers are employed by the state, this would seem to be a good idea. The island’s official labor issue even issued a statement saying that "our state can’t keep maintaining…bloated payrolls."
How Jerry and Arnold’s Governorships Overlap
Get ready to have two governors at once.
Jerry Brown’s governorship is almost certain to begin before Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ends.
Don’t believe it? Just ask them.
The Consultants at Armageddon
Have you come across a California voter – a civilian, not
someone professionally involved in politics — who profoundly, deeply,
truly cares who wins the contest for governor?
Me neither.
The longer this lesser-of-two-evils campaign of meaningless
attacks and pointless policy proposals goes on, the more it seems that
the only people truly invested in this campaign are the political
consultants. Talk to one-they show more passion about the thing than
anybody else.
Buy the DeLorean, Meg, and Take Me Back to 1982
On Monday, Meg Whitman’s rapid response division (team doesn’t do justice to its size) unleashed a response to Jerry Brown’s ad on his gubernatorial record today.
The response used lots of data and statistics to argue that Brown didn’t leave California in the best economic and budgetary shape in 1982. But looking at the numbers, I had a reaction that I don’t think the Whitman people intended.
Take me back to 1982!
If You Don’t Like Tax Increases, Why Would You Vote for a Republican Governor?
The debate – well, calling it a debate is charitable, so let’s say the never-ending yelling match – over taxes in California politics makes little sense, particularly when applied to the governor’s race.
Meg Whitman says she opposes tax increases. Jerry Brown says he opposes them, unless the public goes along. Who to believe?
If past is prologue, believe Brown. And get ready for a Whitman tax increase.