Angelides and Iraq: A winner?
www.camajorityreport.com

Team Arnold has been methodically executing its game plan – making the race a referendum on Angelides as the “tax man cometh,” appearing non-partisan, and moving to the center on issues like stem cell research and the environment.

On top of all this, Arnold’s numbers have been buoyed by the rising tide of opinion that the state that California is on the right track. ...

For Angelides to pull off what has not happened in California since WWII – unseating an incumbent governor – he must do significantly more than continue to engage in a debate on taxes ...

Angelides needs a game-changer – a big play that will change the direction of this campaign. And the play here is to connect Arnold to the fundamental issue of our times – the War in Iraq – and give voters the opportunity to use their 2006 gubernatorial vote as a way to express their opposition (or support) for the war. ...

Imagine, for a moment, if Angelides were to make public that he has bought five minutes of statewide primetime TV to make a major announcement about what he will do as governor on the single most important issue“ confronting California and the country – the War In Iraq.

Here is what Angelides could say to change the course of this election:

My fellow Californians – I am here today to announce my first act on my first day as Governor of California. Immediately upon being sworn in, in my capacity as Commander-in-Chief, I will order the California National Guard out of Iraq.

The legal basis for my order is a 1990 Supreme Court decision where the Court, in acknowledging federal government’s power to call up the National Guard, made clear that governors retain the right to refuse such deployments if the troop deployments “interfere with the State Guard’s capacity to respond to local emergencies,” such as fires, earthquakes, and homeland security concerns. ...

California today is at risk because we do not have the Guard to deal with major fires, a significant earthquake, or ongoing homeland security challenges. But more than anything – California, which has lost more men and women in Iraq than any other state, should not shed another drop of blood in Iraq. ...

As Commander-in-Chief of the California National Guard, I have an ethical and moral duty to protect our troops and protect our state. I will not – I cannot – stand by and allow another son or daughter of California die in Iraq on my watch. It is time to bring our state’s soldiers home.

Here in the deep Blue – so blue it is indigo – state of California, this proclamation would be a classic example of the right policy translating into good politics. ...

The Republican exception
www.flashreport.org

I know from recent experiences in the academy that the Left is prone to rewriting history to fit their worldview. I can’t remember all the times I heard from professors that socialism didn’t fail with the fall of the Soviet Union because socialism was never fully realized (like the tactic children use when they feel they’re about to lose a game: “You didn’t beat me because I quit or I wasn’t trying my hardest!”). Well, Chris Lehane from the California Majority Report (sic) carries on that tendency with his post today titled “Time for a Game Changing Play.”

In his seventh paragraph down, before introducing remedies for the Angelides campaign, Lehane casually wrote:

“For Angelides to pull off what has not happened in California since WWII – unseating an incumbent governor – he must do significantly more than continue to engage in a debate on taxes ...”

But Chris, what about 1966? Ronald Reagan, the thirty-third Governor of California? He will probably give the excuse that Reagan doesn’t count because (Pat) Brown was running for a third term, not a second term. A first term incumbent Governor of California hasn’t been unseated since World War II. But that’s not what he wrote. ...

Maybe it’s just a beginner’s mistake by Lehane. Maybe he’ll provide clarification. Maybe it’s willful ignorance of a Republican victory, repression of bad memories.

(I fully expect to be derided by Lehane and other CMR reporters, editors, and publishers for being a typical conservative Republican, overly sensitive and insistent about Reagan’s memory. So be it. I'm having fun.)

Budgeting for California
www.betterca.com

[Daniel] Weintraub spends some quality time with Angelides budget proposals [Aug. 22]. Tomorrow he will tackle Schwarzenegger’s budget plan. Oh wait. He doesn’t have one. Nevermind.

Seriously though folks, Angelides’ plan while not perfect does a much better job keeping the state’s finances on track than the hope and pray approach favored by Schwarzenegger. ...

The state struggles to balance its budget every year and predicting the future of California’s tax rolls is difficult at best. Angelides is at least daring to do something, rather than sitting on the sidelines like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor has already boxed himself in a corner by his Grover Norquist taxes pledge. He is unwilling to face the hard questions now. Angelides will cut taxes on small businesses, the middle class, the working poor and temporarily increase them on the highest tax bracket. This will fund an increase in education funding and close the structural budget deficit.

Balancing budgets is fiscally conservative. Maintaining a structural budget deficit is not.