What the California Governor's race may come down to is this: Is Jerry Brown still entertaining enough to be California's Governor?
You can bet your eBippy that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman will bring the same razzle dazzle she has shown since the beginning of September to Saturday's debate in the heart of California's Central Valley. She'll showcase those credentials that have made her former employees sooooo loyal. Her headline grabbing ability with people and her handling of her personal fortune will surely suck.... the support of independent and Hispanic votes away from Democratic candidate Jerry Brown as much as they have in the past anyway.
In the meantime, The Brown has impressed no one this week by his inability to make any former employees cry in public. Furthermore, his disinterest in promising to take a lie detector test and then to renege on that promise within mere hours is just too dull for words to describe.
California's version of government by direct voter proposition, something dreaded by the Founding Folk of the USA, has produced much of what ails the state politically and economically speaking since the 1960s. In particular, the fiscal crises the state government has repeatedly faced are the direct result of the many and varied propositions its citizenry have passed.
For decades California's Governors really haven't been able to do much in the way of governing. Don't feel bad, Californians. There are other states where being Governor is mostly a ceremonial job, Texas, for instance. There was a good reason why Dubya couldn't fuck things up in Texas the way he did at the Federal level. That's why Texans can afford to keep a Rick Perry around for laughs. Of course, California's situation is far worse. It has via direct voter initiatives become ungovernable. Neither its Legislature, nor, its Executive has the power to get things done when times are difficult. Anyway, that's all beside the point. What is to the point is that California's Governors are now window dressing, elected for their entertainment value.
Jerry Brown used to be pretty good entertainment value as Governor. He even governed since he was a California Governor during the transitional period before the Republicans came to believe their entire political mission was to be an impaction in the colon of the body politic. But, is he entertaining enough for today's Californian?
We live in the age of so-called Reality TV. Sarah Palin was not only a Governor; there are people who think she should be President. Maybe, she'll pick Snooki as her VP. Christine O'Donnell, Dan Maes, Alvin Greene, Sharron Angle and Joe Miller gaining major party nominations is nothing beside the fact that Jim Bunning, Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, and a host of others, just as unqualified as Palin, in both parties are elected and making decisions that effect all of us.
Watching Meg Whitman campaign is like watching "Big Brother Does Leona Helmsley." Nine out of ten sane voters should have barfed and switched channels long ago. instead Whitman is the Republican nominee for the head of state of one of the world's top ten economies. Why? Because the former Governor Moonbeam is so damn dull, so sane, so frugal.
He got no Snooki, no more.