The Debate

Bill Bradley writes at Pajamas Media about tonight's Gubernatorial Debate in Sacramento. Bradley sums up the campaign to date in a fairly concise fashion. Angelides has been all over the place.

His first series of ads for the General Election--"He's a leader, not an Actor!"--were laughably bad. Bradley says rightly of Angelides' new focus: The candidacy has been focused increasingly on a series of issues that are not central to the governorship of California. Such as Schwarzenegger's purported closeness to unpopular President George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, and now a new insistence on politically correct language about immigration.

The Schwarzenegger equals Bush advertising and rhetoric may help bring some Democrats home to a candidate who is, especially given the highly partisan nature of his candidacy, surprisingly weak among his own party members, but does not fly at all with all-important independent voters.

The Iraq policy emphasis has been peculiar. After implying that as governor he might have the power to bring California National Guard members home from Iraq-- he most assuredly would not -- Angelides has nonetheless continued to campaign on the issue....

I've been joking for weeks now that Phil doesn't seem to know who exactly it is he's running against. Anyone who watches that ad without focusing intently on it is left asking the same question. The repeated, almost rythmic chanting of "George W. Bush!" over and over sends the almost subliminal message that Phil is running against the President's record and not his actual opponent. I can understand the strategy, though I don't know that it's truly effective but the ad all but ignores Arnold.

Within the last month I've had a couple of conversations with a local Republican activist in Santa Maria tasked with fundraising for Republican candidates in the area. The gentleman bemoaned--on more than one occasion--the fact that Arnold has sucked up nearly all the money in the state. Everywhere he went for money, my contact told me he's found that Arnold has already been.

I wondered why given the fact that polls have shown Angelides barely in the race and the Governator seemingly coasting to a November win. After reading Bradley I've determined there's only one reason for it:

Angelides needs to get off these tangents and stunts, which might be appropriate for a Democratic primary campaign, and back on to the central issues of California. He will have one hour tomorrow night to pull it off.

What does Schwarzenegger need to do? Not make a big mistake and seem like he knows what he is talking about.

It's about any potential need for damage control. Should the debate get Angelides back to the point of competitiveness, Arnold stands ready to crush him under an avalanche of spending.