How does a former Republican legislator (Stan Statham) end up as a moderator for the gubenatorial debate? From Bob Salladay:
Statham, a former Republican lawmaker, seemed to be cranky … about Angelides. He didn’t show Schwarzenegger the same disdain.
Stan Statham was a GOP Assemblyman from Redding who fought a “quixotic quest” to split the state into 2 or 3 states in the early 90s. This is the guy that ends up moderating our (apparently) one and only debate this election year? Huh?
I have uploaded the video to EyeSpot, a comparable site to YouTube, only better. If you click on this link, you will be able to sign up for an eyespot account and make your very own debate mixes. You can add music, make cuts and everything. When you’re done, you can download your video. It’s all pretty sweet. Plus, the ability to upload flv files has been very helpful to me. Check it out.
The debate can be viewed here.
First of all, this format was ridiculous. A focus group telling the moderator what to do? Yelling at the candidates to interrupt each other? I’m all for interaction, but not at the point of a gun.
As for the debate itself, I think Phil scored his best point when Arnold said that he moved too fast on the special. Too fast? How about too crazy? Too right-wing? Too conservative for California. To Arnold, the people just told him to work with the Legislature; he learned nothing that his special election “deforms” that they were simply not what the people wanted.
For all the efforts for a conversation, they both looked to be speaking off talking points. Phil stuck to his comfort zone of attacking Arnold, comparing him to Bush, and supporting first responders. With respect to the responders, this is a strong point for him. For example, in San Francisco, we are 200 officers below the supposed system minimum. The governor’s attacks upon pensions was simply not a good idea if you want to recruit new public safety officers.
Arnold continued his deception of being a moderate. he said he wants to fully fund education, but does he? But in his favor, I love the move of asking Phil the question about his funniest moment. That was simply brilliant. It makes him seem less Terminator, more Kindergarten cop.
In the end, for all of Phil’s faults, he truly tells you what he believes. We know what his plans for the future, what are Arnold’s?
UPDATE:: Oops, I forgot to give the address of the webcast. You can see it on KPIX’s website here.
I’ll get more info up about the debate, but I highly recommend you check out this post at GovernorPhil. The key for me:
The 2005 special election. Phil’s opponent learned the wrong lesson from the failed 2005 special election. He said he lost because he “went too fast,” but stood by the measures as “good ideas.” Voters do not reject initiatives because they like the ideas but don’t like the timing. We now know what we will get with four more years of Schwarzenegger: more time for him to continue to push these bad ideas onto California.
Arnold is trying to decive the state. And he compares Phil to Ted Kennedy, to which Phil proudly accepted the label. Good job on that one Phil. More on the debate in the coming week…
cross-posted from Tracking Arnold: the Arnold Schwarzenegger video project.
Arnold has some advice for new immigrants, especially Mexicans: act like the Asians. You know, build railroads and stuff. Normally I edit these videos, but why bother with this one. This one is bad enough without any editing:
You see Arnold thinks that every immigrant comes to America with the same advantages as him. You know huge muscles, a bottle of anabolic steroids, and pearly white teeth. Arnold says that all you have to do is just assimilate, act like Americans. First of all, does that even mean anything?
But to the deeper question, the question of race, we have to analyze how Arnold got here. Arnold came legally, although there are time periods where his immigration status is in question, and with every advantage in the world. But most importantly, he was a white European. Did you know after Mexico, the country with the most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is Great Britain. Do you see anybody calling to kick out all the Brits, to lose their annoying accents?
Perhaps the Minutemen, Arnold’s good friends, are a bit more troubled when the immigrants aren’t white. Arnold never had to deal with the issues of race that a great deal of Mexican immigrants have to deal with on a daily basis. So, it’s not just a question of “assimilating” and learning the language. There is a pressure to force Mexicans into the barrio. Was anybody pushing Arnold into the Austrian barrio. Oh, yeah not so much.
This is just another example of Arnold’s insensitivity towards Latinos. First, he praised the Minutemen, not once, but twice. Then he thought Bonnie Garcia was just “hot” because of her mix of “black blood and Latino blood”. And now this. Arnold, perched in his Beverly Hills Mansion just really doesn’t understand the people of this state.
The video can be viewed here. Jerry holds up well, but not great. All in all, I would have to give this one a toss up. I’m going to bet that the Chronicle endorses Brown, simply because Pooch really is far to the right of the general population of California, doubly so than the population of SF.
(See also Progressive 11th’s roundup here – promoted by SFBrianCL)
The DCCC apparenlty likes some numbers that it has seen on the CA-11 race. Hank Shaw of the Stockton Record is reporting that the DCCC will place a $100K bet on Jerry McNerney for this race:
National Democrats are finally recognizing that Pleasanton wind energy consultant Jerry McNerney’s campaign against Tracy Rep. Ricard Pombo is for real: They are polling in the district right now, and this survey will determine whether they’re in for a penny, or in for a pound.
They’re reportedly in for at least $100,000, however, according to several sources both here and in Washington DC. Should the D-Trip’s polling show something similar to McNerney’s survey (41% Pombo, 40% McNerney) you can bet they’ll start slinging the cash the way the National Republican Campaign Committee already has been doing since late August. (Stockton Record Blog 10/06/06)
Well, I say about damn time! All the internal and other Dem-leaning polling has shown Jerry with a small lead or within the margin of error. I don’t know if the DCCC will release their new polling, but we’ll probably get at least some antecdotal data based upon whether more than the original $100K is put into the district. I’m glad that at least Rahm can recognize his mistakes (i.e. getting involved in the primary without asking anybody in the district). Jerry will make a great Congressman.
The Tracy Press Candidate forum went well, or so I am told. I of course couldn’t muster the time to haul my butt to Tracy during Rush Hour. For that, I apologize. I would have really liked to get some video of the Forum up on the Internets. As of right now, I haven’t been able to find any coverage on YouTube or anything. If you have any video, let me know! So there’s a bunch of coverage. A quick roundup on the flip. Of course, if you have anything else, feel free to write your own diary or add a comment to this one.
There was a large audience – standing room only. I would estimate that McNerney supporters outnumbered Pombo supporters by about two to one. Jerry McNerney spoke very strongly and very passionately, while Pombo seemed pretty defensive the whole evening.
McNerney, who was unusually aggressive in the forum, said attacking Iraq was a “mafioso” act of vengeance and a distraction from the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
“Iraq was a failed state in 2001, and Iraq is a failed state today,” McNerney said. “And wanting to kill them over there instead of here is Tony Soprano morality.
{snip}
But McNerney’s reference to the mafia irked Pombo’s wife, Annette, who is Italian.“She wasn’t thrilled with that,” Pombo said. “I don’t know why he said that. Maybe he thinks I’m Italian.”
Wow, Pombo thinks everything is about him, huh? Pombo, Pombo, Pombo. Don’t you think that the mafioso quote describes Bush. You know, HW was a target of an assasination attempt by Saddam Hussein, so mafioso style revenge by his son. Pombo just misses that, huh? Either he doesn’t understand the situation and the backstory (a reasonable possibility with Pombo, he’s never been one to get too cozy with reality) or he’s just trying to play some games with nationality. How funny would it be if Pombo started crying racism. What a joke.
Terrorism, the Iraq war and energy dwarfed local issues during the only scheduled debate between Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Democrat Jerry McNerney on Thursday, with Iraq sharply dividing an already-partisan crowd.
{snip}
Pombo’s campaign manager, Carl Fogliani, later told the Tracy Press that the loud show of support for McNerney’s Iraq war position came from liberals that live outside the 11th Congressional District. The six people from the crowd of about 400 who were interviewed by the Tracy Press said they lived within the district, which stretches west to include Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon.
Does Pombo have any support for this assertion? Umm…well, not so much. He jsut likes to blame everything on “outsiders”. Well, Tricky Ricky, you have some good ol’ fashioned home-grown grassroots enemies now.
Well, Round 2 goes to the Homophobes. The Court of Appeal ruled against the City and County of San Francisco in their case against the State to allow same-sex marriages.
The 2-1 decision, which reversed a San Francisco Superior Court judge’s ruling, was a defeat for gay-rights advocates, who have looked to California courts to follow the lead of a 2003 ruling by Massachusetts’ high court legalizing same-sex marriage in that state. The California Supreme Court is expected to have the final word in the case sometime next year.
In today’s ruling, the Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the boundaries of marriage are up to the Legislature, which passed a law in 1977 defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. State voters reaffirmed that decision in a 2000 initiative that denied recognition to same-sex marriages in other states.
“The Legislature and the voters of this state have determined that ‘marriage’ in California is an institution reserved for opposite-sex couples, and it makes no difference whether we agree with their reasoning,” Presiding Justice William McGuiness said in the majority opinion.(SF Chronicle 10/5/06)
Well, it’s not really a big deal because this would have been stayed pending appeal if SF had won the case. Ultimately it’s going to be up to the State Supreme Court. Nonetheless, this is a disappointing result. The Court basically said that seperate but equal is hunky-dory with them.
That’s not hunky-dory at all. Mark Leno will be introducing his gay marriage bill in December and Phil Angelides has already said that he would sign it. So, you still think electing Arnold will make no difference all you wavering Dems? It will.
( – promoted by SFBrianCL)
UPDATE: I’ve posted on YouTube now. I moved the text of the quote to the Extended. Here you go:
Arnold Schwarzenegger has stepped in it again. He just can’t keep his foot out of his mouth with respect to immigration issues. His quote today, caught on video this time. The Governor has even been so kind as to load it up on the internet. I’ll have it in YouTube in a few minutes.
Governor’s full quote:
Question: You just talked about assimilation here today. Are you concerned that if the Angelides campaign releases more tapes that on those tapes there’ll be disparaging remarks you make about ethnic groups that are not assimilating. Are you trying to get ahead of an issue that you think is coming at you?
Schwarzenegger: I think it is something that I have been talking about for many, many years. The people always ask me what was the secret to your success here in America, and I always say that number one it’s the land of opportunity; that anyone can make it in this country if you work hard. But by working hard, what do we mean by that? That means, not just working, physically working, but it means that you make an effort to become part of America. That you learn the language, that you learn the history of America and that you learn the way Americans do business. And you have to become part of America. And that is very difficult for some people to do especially, I think, for Mexicans because they are so close to their country here so they try to stay Mexican but try to be in America so there’s this kind of back and forth and what I’m saying to the Mexicans is you’ve got to go and immerse yourself and assimilate into the American culture become part of the American fabric. That is how Americans will embrace you. That was my, I think the secret, if there is one, to success. I was embraced by the American people because I love America, I learned the language and I made every effort to become an American. That is I think what this is all about. So it has nothing to do with anything else. This is my advice, someone can take the advice or someone can ignore the advice it’s perfectly fine with me. But it’s my advice, as an immigrant, how to be successful in America and how to be accepted in America.
Two “debates” are scheduled today. I guess calling them debates is a bit of a stretch as the candidates won’t have much interaction with each other, but well, what can you do. First, in CA-AG Jerry Brown will face off with Chuck Poochigian. Pooch has been running a very negative campaign, hoping that enough people will simply vote against Jerry Brown to carry him to victory. It’s a very risky straegy. The debate is really a forum for the editorial board of the SF Chronicle, but will be webcast live on CBS5’s website.
As for CA-11, Jerry McNerney faces down Evil Incarnate. Ok, Ok, maybe that’s too far. Let’s just call Richard Pombo corrupt and anti-environment and leave it at that. They will be participating at a Candidate Forum hosted by the Tracy Press at 7 p.m. at Poet Christian School, 1701 S. Central Ave., in Tracy. If you want to attend, try to get there early as seating will be limited.
Ok, if you live in CA-11 or in Tracy or Stockton, or something like that, this “debate” is going to be broadcast on Public Access TV. I would really love it if somebody knew any additional information. Better yet, record it and post it on YouTube or EyeSpot. I’m thinking of heading out there, so if you want to carpool from SF, let me know.
We need to get this “debate” out to as many people as possible. Pombo is in trouble people, let’s make sure we are doing everything possible to make sure that happens.