Thursday, August 13, 2009

Governor Moonbeam again

None of this surprises me at this point:
In the Democratic primary, Jerry Brown (D) leads Gavin Newsom (D), 29% to 20%.
In the Republican primary, Meg Whitman (R) leads with 24%, followed by Tom
Campbell (R) at 19% and Steve Poinzner (R) at 9%. In general election match ups,
Brown beats Whitman, 42% to 36%, and tops Campbell, 43% to 35%. However, with
Newsom as the Democratic nominee, the match ups are statistical ties.

Despite his reputation as an eccentric, Jerry Brown had a good record as governor--he was widely popular in the state, appealing to the hippies and fiscal conservatives alike. He also did some interesting things as Mayor of Oakland, and people I know from the area generally speak well of the guy. I think he'd be effective, but the last few governors we have had became toxically unpopular because of budget decisions that were only partly of their making. Effectiveness, basically, is stymied by the system. Hopefully Brown runs on a good government platform and calls for a constitutional convention. The state cannot wait any longer.

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.