House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rallied the delegates at Day 2 of the California Democratic Party Convention. She introduced Phil Angelides after railing against the failed policies of the Bush Administration. The crowd roared.
Nancy introduced Phil and recounted his history with the state and national party. In 1992, Phil was the state party chair when George Bush (the first) had a monstrous lead in California. That year, Phil helped organize the party, get Bill Clinton elected (the first Dem presidential win in California in decades), and helped California become the first state to elect two female Democratic Senators.
Phil Angelides gave one of the best speeches of his life, often getting the crowd to their feet. He laid out his vision for a Democratic governor's office, and a progressive wave starting in Sacramento and rolling all the way to Washington, DC.
Phil talked about not kowtowing to B-movie actor and failed governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; about fighting for progressive Democratic values, not moderating accommodation; about fighting the pathetic policies of the Bush-Cheney-Schwarzenegger Agenda.
Phil said,
This is the Governor who burdened our kids with debt when he'd pledged to stop it; turned young people away from college and slashed classroom education when he'd promised to protect it; coddled special interests when he'd vowed to block them. I'm proud that I never, ever supported the Bush-Schwarzenegger agenda of debt, division, and diminished opportunity.
His record he said, spoke for itself: as State Treasurer, Phil Angelides led the giant pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from tobacco companies and worked with Eliot Spitzer to crack down on corporate corruption.
Angelides talked about his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Californians to help balance the chronic budget deficit and fully fund our education system, a plan, that according to a recent PPIC poll, is supported by 79% of Democrats and 64% of Californians overall.
Phil Angelides is clearly the choice for progressive Californians.
(Angelides volunteer, live blogging from the convention)