Althouse: "What helped bring Whitman to earth, he said, was what vaulted her skyward: money."

May 20, 2010

"What helped bring Whitman to earth, he said, was what vaulted her skyward: money."

"Except in this case it was Poizner's money — the $24 million he has put into his campaign."

19 comments:

Fred4Pres said...: Imagine that.; 5/20/10, 9:34 AM
victoria said...: Believe me these are 2 singularly un-charismatic candidates. They are throwing money around like drunken sailors on liberty and are saying nothing of substance to California voters. It is a shocker that either one of them gets any votes. Me, I would vote for Snoopy over either one of them. Thank god I am a democrat can can vote for neither of them. Scary when Jerry Brown looks like the best candidate.

No amount of money spent by either candidate will cover up the fact that they have no new ideas or solutions for California.

Try the senatorial race, Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell and Chuck Devore. Gag me.

Vicki from Pasadena(Sorry to say, California); 5/20/10, 9:55 AM
Anonymous said...: Her ads, carpet bombing us with platitudes and blandness, have also done her in. People make fun of them.

Whichever of the three that is elected spells doom, I fear, for California. But maybe Linda Ronstadt will sing at the inauguration.; 5/20/10, 9:57 AM
Anonymous said...: It would be great if Mickey Kaus upset Barbara Boxer. Hollywood supports Boxer and Brown--no surprise there.

I'm dismayed by the Whitman and Poizner negative ads, but either one would be preferable to more of Jerry Brown.; 5/20/10, 10:10 AM
Eric said...: Interesting, since Linda McMahon is rising in the polls in CT thanks to her deep pockets from professional wrestling (WWE). I can't believe it will last.; 5/20/10, 10:35 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: No amount of money spent by either candidate will cover up the fact that they have no new ideas or solutions for California.

Well here's *two thoughts that I'll give you for free:

1) Your state is broke

2) Stop spending money

You're welcome.; 5/20/10, 10:37 AM
Unknown said...: She's been on Cavuto a lot and, if you listen to her, she really isn't ready for prime time.

Maybe she's got the same problem as Carly Fiorina seems to have encountered while she was out having her cancer treated: the image consultants got to her and homogenized her so badly that whatever she might have had to say is lost in the kind of "platitudes and blandness" PatCA mentions.

Eric said...

Interesting, since Linda McMahon is rising in the polls in CT thanks to her deep pockets from professional wrestling (WWE). I can't believe it will last.

Not that I disagree (I really don't), but consider the competition.; 5/20/10, 10:47 AM
BJM said...: Whitman and Poizner are whistling past the graveyard, neither can beat Jerry Brown in full moonbeam mode.

Brown will pound the final stake into the barely beating heart of CA.

Oh well, we had a great run and it was fun while it lasted.; 5/20/10, 12:18 PM
Anonymous said...: "Well here's *two thoughts that I'll give you for free:

1) Your state is broke

2) Stop spending money"

You should have charged a consulting fee. That's the California way.; 5/20/10, 12:32 PM
victoria said...: Thanks Hoosier, I'll pass that along to the powers that be and the potential candidates. I am sure they never thought of that before. It takes a savvy midwesterner like you to show us hicks the way to go. We sure do appreciate your know how. Believe me, none of the Republican candidates have mentioned that at all in their ads, it's just attack, attack, attack. They attack each other and Obama and offer NOTHING as a solution. Maybe YOU should be their campaign manager. Joe the plumber could have given them that advice but, happily, his 15 minutes are up.

Vicki from Pasadena; 5/20/10, 1:17 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Thanks Hoosier, I'll pass that along to the powers that be and the potential candidates. I am sure they never thought of that before.

Well Vicki since your state is teetering on the brink of insovencly I'd say, yeah, I don't think the powers that be ever thought of that before.

It takes a savvy midwesterner like you to show us hicks the way to go. We sure do appreciate your know how.

Anytime Vicki. I know math can be a troublesome concept for those who are addicted to taxpayer largese and can't quite comprehend the fact that you're demanding more money than is available.

You need any other pearls of wisdom, just give me shout.; 5/20/10, 2:04 PM
themightypuck said...: Well put Victoria regardless of one's party.; 5/20/10, 2:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Meg Whitman seemed to start advertising on TV and radio long before Steve Poizner did. Her early ads outlined her plan to 1) create jobs, 2) cut government spending, and 3) fix education. Since the Poizner ads started to run, both candidates have had ads accusing each other of being liberal and supporting Boxer and Gore, etc. There is more emphasis on how to deal with illegal immigration.

Whitman mailed a Newsweek-size magazine about her policy agenda to Californians. She has offered solutions and it is silly to claim otherwise. Whether or not one agrees with her solutions is another matter.; 5/20/10, 3:18 PM
AC245 said...: I imagine that brief exchange between victoria and Hoosier Daddy is not unlike the situation referenced in the earlier "Worried"/Salon post.

Dad has a grip on reality: he lays out what he sees as the problem and offers a proposed solution to resolve it in simple, direct terms.

Daughter responds with a bitchy, sarcastic, insulting tirade because she can't figure out how to blame the problem on Republicans, and the proposed solution involves, like, work and responsibility and giving up free stuff.; 5/20/10, 3:24 PM
BJM said...: @LarsPorsena

Spending is only part of the problem, even if the Pols had the balls to take on the unions and unfunded pensions (they don't and won't) and cut pork it still wouldn't stop the red ink.

The state is sinking under a morass of anti-business regulation, failed social policy, high cost of living/taxes/fees and an unsustainable ratio of taxpayers to benefit/service recipients.

However a tipping point has been crossed and like or not; CA is about to become the mother of all federal money pits.

It will take years, if not decades, for CA to recover and once CA pols are on the federal teat they will have little motivation to change.; 5/20/10, 3:27 PM
victoria said...: AC245, your insight in to the interplay between myself and hoosier is truly inspired. Wrong, but inspired. Didn't try to blame anything on the Republicans, didn't try to push off responsibility on to the Republican party. In California, the Republicans and the Democrats are equally responsible for the mess we are in. Trust me, I live here, I know what is going on. Seems funny to me that you assume I support Jerry Brown just because I dissed the 2 Republican candidates. I actually voted for arnold schwarzenegger, twice. I thought he could actually get something done. He didn't. I have no confidence that any candidate of any party can actually get us out of the quagmire that we are in. I say, dump them all.

So, your cheap shots are falling on deaf ears here. Come live here and then you can shoot off your mouth with your jerky stuff. And if you think that the Tea Party and their minions are going to solve our fiscal problems, you are smoking the weed that may become legal in June.

Vicki from Pasadena; 5/20/10, 3:43 PM
Methadras said...: Not a single one of them has a plan for how they are going to curb illegal immigration in this state. They have zero plan for how they are going to eviscerate the gold-plated public employee unions that infest the halls of local and state government. They have said nothing on how they are going to bridge the budget deficit gap. California is quickly becoming a shit-hole of a state and they have no way to remove the political correctness that has hamstrung the state into oblivion and offer only the mildest of ideas with no way to implement them against a completely democrat controlled state legislature.

Against Brown these two will fail miserably and he isn't even in the race yet is he? It's not like he'll do any better considering the shit-hole Oakland has become under his authority. California was once a great place to be and it's luster has dulled significantly under democrat rule.; 5/20/10, 7:44 PM
AC245 said...: That was a very long tirade you addressed to me, victoria, but it neither contradicts nor even responds to anything I said in my previous comment.

All your latest temper tantrum accomplishes - aside from knocking down an impressive parade of strawmen - is reinforcing the image of you as a petulant child lashing out wildly and incoherently against anyone who doesn't espouse your worldview.; 5/20/10, 8:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, Brown is in the race--see jerrybrown.org. He has been raising $$$ in Hollywood and had a campaign appearance at UCSB recently.

Democrats have controlled the California State Senate since 1970. They have also controlled the Assembly since 1970, except in 1995-1996.; 5/20/10, 9:36 PM