Davis speech at UCLA

Here is NYT's report on the Gov. Davis speech at UCLA where he denounced the recall and defended his stewardship of the state.


Some excerpts below:
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19 — In a fight for his political life, Gov. Gray Davis pleaded with Californians today to reject the attempt to recall him, describing it as part of a right-wing effort "to steal elections Republicans cannot win."

RR: Got to give credit to Davis for being a fighter. I didn't think he would win in 1998 but he did and he is attempting the political equivalent of a Houdini stunt trying to survive this recall. But I just find this whole “Right-wing” conspiracy stuff very annoying. California, the land where the Democrats control all executive branch offices and large majorities in the legislature is hardly a right-wing state. If only right-wingers backed the recall how many percent would the recall be getting in the polls? I don't know the exact political breakdown of California but I'd guess AT MOST 33% of the state's voters are right-leaning. With 33% leaning left and 33% going one way one time and the other at other times. And that is probably an OPTIMISTIC assessment of the number of right-leaning voters. In 1998, GOP candidate Dan Lungren got merely 38.4% of the vote. How many of those are "hard core right wingers?" And how many of his voters were simply "anti-Davis" voters? Instead Davis just resorts to name calling, in his mind and in the mind of his supporters saying "right-wing" is like calling people Islamic terrorists and should end all discussion.

RR: “Steal?” Steal is breaking the law by getting something you didn’t pay for. The recall provisions are on the law books. If the Davis people have a political philosophy problem with the recall then they should work to remove it from the law books the minute this thing is over. Until then, stop whining.

NYT (quoting Davis): "There are many reasons to be against this recall," he said. "It is expensive, it's undemocratic, it's a bad precedent, and it almost certainly will breed more recalls."

RR: It is expensive? Yes. Undemocratic? Debatable. Davis is arguing that a NO vote in part I is equal to a YES vote for him in part II where he isn't on the ballot. Bad precedent? Fight to take the recall provisions out of state law so it doesn’t happen again. More recalls? Don’t think so. A recall will only receive support if it is seen as very likely to succeed. And if this recall FAILS, it is almost certain that the lobbying to take the recall provision off the books will be intense.

NYT: But in his own defense he said that his state had been "victimized by a massive fraud" by Enron and other energy trading companies.

RR: Certainly some blame goes to out of state energy providers for taking advantage of the situation and those people will be prosecuted. But Davis in a panic signed overpriced long-term energy contracts that made the fiscal situation worse. So stand up and take your lumps.

NYT: And he said much of the spending that led to the state's deep budget deficits had gone to schools and health care. "I make no apologies for that," he said.

RR: Tisk, tisk, tisk. In the abstract of course we want to fund schools and health care. But responsible fiscal leadership says, well we got a lot of revenue coming in right now, will this always be true in the future? Don’t expand programs to such a degree that it can’t be sustained in the future when the economy slows down. People make that mistake all the time when they buy a house. They often buy more house than they really can afford and when they get into trouble no bank is going to accept good intentions for payment. Same thing happened in California: the internet boom, the high tech boom and the dollars were rolling into Sacramento and the politicians drunk with all that cash SPENT it all and expanded programs and now the dollars aren't rolling in and they say, hey, we need more money! For more analysis along this line check out Jill Steward's commentary. Jill is a self-confessed Democrat fed up with what they are doing up in Sacramento.

RR: I'm generally a hard core advocate of representative democracy and thus would be philosophically against the recall but in this case a message NEEDS to be sent to Sacramento. VOTE YES on the RECALL!!!