Even though Angelides was obviously the more progressive candidate, he did not receive the strong support of the CA democrats. So even though people whine and complain about the lack of progressive candidates, on election day, some democrats will vote strategy instead of actual leadership.
Westly got 42% of the vote based on the platform of "I'm blue, but not too blue so I can beat Arnold." And even people here on DailyKos (the supposed home of progressive mania) dropped the ball by voting for Westly and showing the inherent division among Democrats. The reason why we keep losing is that we have no loyalty to actual progressives. We pride ourselves on our skepticism, but we do not recognize that that skepticism must be complemented with some type of mercy for the people who are willing to actually stand on the side of the left and stay there. And despite Angelides's attempts to stand strong on the left (a la actually say he is going to raise taxes), the politically-minded progressives voted against him because his boldness to be issue-based didn't seem to fit their idea of what could beat Arnold.
Here is my solution: We need to make this race about rallying people around a REAL leader. Because unlike Arnold, Angelides has the sense and decency to not call CA teachers, nurses, and civil servants "girly-men." Is everyone so cyncial that we can't get an intelligent guy like Angelides to beat out a growling musclemass that works his calves more than his brain? Come on!
It's time to energize people, not moan and groan about how unenergized CA is