The Blue Voice

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Works for me

Columnist Dan Walters describes Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides' dilemma in running against an Arnold Schwarzenegger who has been staging himself as a "moderate" this year: As Schwarzenegger dignifies himself, others become cheesier Sacramento Bee 09/26/06. He writes:

Nothing else has worked, so with just six weeks remaining before Election Day, Angelides is betting all of his rapidly diminishing stack of chips on one supposed issue: that Schwarzenegger is too closely aligned with Bush.

Guilt by association is a chancy strategy at best, and particularly in this case, because Schwarzenegger has carefully maintained his distance from Bush on many issues, including global warming. But Schwarzenegger has left his challenger with almost no room for maneuvering, having cut a series of image-enhancing deals with Angelides' fellow Democrats in the Legislature that he's now rolling out one by one in elaborate bill-signing ceremonies.

Schwarzenegger and Bush sure look like peas in a pod to me, "moderate" posturing or not. He'll go back to being a regular old rightwing Republican if he gets re-elected.

Pay no attention to all this moderate jive, George. I'm your guy.

posted at 5:04:00 PM by Bruce Miller

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