Cal Debate Impressions

Virginia's take on the Cal debate on Wednesday night.

the wonky unelectability of McClintock and Comejo suggests that perhaps substance is too scary for California voters. A smooth operator like Arnold may be just what the electorate ordered.

I'd agree with Postrel's assessment. You know where McClintock and Comejo stand. I have to say though McClintock doesn't come across as well on television compared to radio. The first few times I heard him speak have been on talkradio and I was pretty impressed with his clarity and convictions. But on television he had that slightly spooked scarecrow look. Bustamante just didn't do it for me. With all the problems over his taken wagonloads of money from the Indian tribes, his promises to raise taxes even more and his generally smirky performance further drove me away from his candidacy. As for Arianna, she was simply in attack-dog mode. She is entertaining but not much more.

On issue matters, I am going to vote against prop 54 which would end collecting of racial data by the state government. In principle, I'm all in favor of a color blind society and that is the world we want to be in but we aren't there yet.

As for drivers licenses and illegal immigrants, I'm against it. Gov. Davis vetoed a tighter version of what he signed just now for security reasons. His ploy to curry favor is just so transparent. I have no illusions about the reality that illegal immigrants are part of what makes California's economy work. However, there are immigrants who are here legally and we are doing a disservice to them by this kind of move and encouraging more illegal immigration. We are in no position to round-up and kick out every illegal immigrant but that doesn't mean they should be able to benefit the same as those who have come here legally.

Another issue that came up in the debate was taxation. I haven't given it much thought, but the state is collecting a mixture of property, income, sales, gas, tobacco and probably a few other tax types. I tend toward libertarian economic policies. However, I am not familiar with the pros and cons of each type of tax to raise revenue. Calling all libertarian readers, fill me in please on what is the "preferred" types of taxes?