Davis takes first step toward victory

I'm feeling increasingly confident Davis will win. Why? I trust his political instincts and team. They have served him well in the past, even as the public grew increasingly disenchanted with Davis, the man.

However, with his back against the wall, Davis is suddenly doing what he rarely did before -- getting off the mushy middle and providing the base with red-meat partisanship.

This recall is bigger than California. What's happening here is part of an ongoing national effort to steal elections Republicans cannot win.

It started with the impeachment of President Clinton, when the Republicans could not beat him in 1996. It continued in Florida, where they stopped the vote count, depriving thousands of Americans of the right to vote.

This year, they're trying to steal additional congressional seats in Colorado and Texas, overturning legal redistricting plans. Here in California, the Republicans lost the governor's race last November. Now they're trying to use this recall to seize control of California just before the next presidential election.

They spent $3 million to put this recall on the ballot, but you're going to have to spend $65 million of your hard-working tax dollars to conduct that election. I'm sure you'll agree with me that money could be better spent educating our children.

This is absolutely brilliant (as is the rest of his speech, go read it). Bush is increasingly unpopular in the Golden State, and any successful recall effort must tie Bush and DeLay to the recall mess. Clinton has been advising Davis' anti-recall efforts, and this speech has the Big Dog's fingerprints all over it.

The GOP HAS been leading a nationwide assault on established democratic principles, abandoning logic and process from DC, to Colorado, to Georgia, to Texas, to California, and maybe even Ohio. It's a theme that should have national salience, and should be amplified.

Daniel Weintraub of the increasingly influential California Insider weblog notes:

His speech will probably succeed in rallying the Democratic base to his side. But I didn't hear much that would convince independents or Republicans to support him.

Good. Davis doesn't need Republicans or independents to support him. He needs Democrats. We vastly outnumber Republicans, and independents aren't likely to turn out for any of the candidates. Davis, however, needs Dems to turn out and vote "no" on recall, and this speech is step one toward that process.

Posted August 20, 2003 12:46 AM | Comments (114)