Drone aircraft are monitoring the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s part of a new border security program instituted by the Obama Administration, which includes a large contingent of the California National Guard dispatched by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … ENTER THE MOONBEAM.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: BOXER WINS SENATE DEBATE, WHITMAN KNOCKS SCHWARZENEGGER, JERRY BROWN STARTS SPINNING IT UP. Last night’s debate between Senator Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger, ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, can’t have been seen by many Californians in the dead of summer. And it didn’t exactly garner massive press coverage, either. So it’s hard to say what impact it will have on the race, which has been tight.
Going into the debate, Boxer had a single-digit lead in a well-regarded private poll. Nothing that happened in the debate will turn that around. In fact, quite the contrary.
There were many sharp exchanges, but frankly nothing that particularly stood out for me. What we saw is what people who have been following the race already knew; the two candidates have very different views on most issues. Boxer is a liberal, and Fiorina is very conservative.
What’s interesting to me about the race is that Fiorina has made no move to the center since winning the primary. She’s against the government stimulating the flagging economy, even though national polls and state polls show that most voters want more. She believes that tax cuts for rich people and corporations and rollback of regulations — including on climate change — is how to get the economy humming. She’s against abortion and against gay marriage. She supports the foreign policy of the previous administration. She takes a derisory view of public service as a career.
There is, after all, a reason why Sarah Palin enthusiastically endorsed Fiorina in the primary.
Boxer, in my view, is a little too liberal for California. That hasn’t stopped her from winning before and, running against who is too conservative for California, needn’t stop her from winning again. Especially since Fiorina has nothing like the resources of billionaire Meg Whitman, who nonetheless stalled in her race for governor against Jerry Brown.
In fact, Boxer has the current financial edge over Fiorina, by a large margin.
Her problem, and the reason why this race is relatively close, is that she has been in the Senate for a long time and Congress is very unpopular. But President Barack Obama is still quite popular here, unlike a number of other places around the country. And Fiorina was fired by Hewlett Packard for her tenure as its CEO, making her only bona fides for high public office questionable.
In other action yesterday, Whitman blamed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the latest budget impasse, arguing in a campaign stop in a Sacramento suburb that he should have forced the Legislature into action.
“It’s a matter of leadership,” she said.
Actually, you can’t shove state legislators around like they are little PR people. Schwarzenegger has already tried Whitman’s supposed solution of getting a bill passed to take away legislative salaries when the budget is late. He’s also tried things she has no ability to do, such as campaigning in individual districts and even trying to defeat Democratic legislators.
Which Whitman’s chief strategist Mike Murphy should know, since he was around for all that.
The next governor will have some leverage that Schwarzenegger hasn’t, in the form of redistricting being taken out of the Legislature’s hands and new open primaries. Together, these measures will, over time, reduce some of the hyperpartisanship which grips both the Democratic and Republican parties in the state Capitol.
But Whitman had nothing to do with any of these reforms. She actively opposed the open primary initiative, and was nowhere to be found when it was time to ante up to pass the redistricting reform initiative.
As Whitman indulges in empty posturing, Jerry Brown is gearing up. I’ll explain much more in a piece tomorrow. But for now, Brown is having an active Thursday.
In the morning, he held an event with Latino leaders at Oakland’s Laney College.
In the afternoon, he’s in Los Angeles for a green tech jobs event.
In the evening, he joins former Governors Gray Davis, his former chief of staff, and George Deukmejian, the conservative Republican who succeeded him first time around, at the Biltmore Hotel for an event honoring the California Conservation Corps. That’s the program Brown founded to help underprivileged youth do useful work for the state and prepare for productive adulthoods.
The three former governors joined forces last year to help persuade Schwarzenegger that the program did not deserve the chopping block.
Former Governor Pete Wilson signed a letter endorsing the CCC as well. But he won’t be at the Biltmore tonight with Brown, Davis, and Deukmmejian.
Wilson is Whitman’s campaign chairman, and they certainly don’t want to risk an unscripted encounter with Jerry Brown. In fact, Wilson is being kept under wraps since his hard-edged campaigning helped Whitman fend off accusations that she was soft on illegal immigrants.
President Barack Obama expressed optimism yesterday after meeting with the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Egypt, as he resumed direct negotiations toward peace in the Middle East.
** NEW SURVEY: REPUBLICANS GET MORE WHITE, MORE RELIGIOUS. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates why independent voters are the key to elections in America.
Without making major inroads with independents, Republicans can’t hope to win outside their stronghold of the South and smaller enclaves of similarity in other regions.
About 9 out of 10 Republicans are non-Hispanic whites, and more than half of these are highly religious. That compares with 62% of the Democratic rank-and-file that is white and largely less religious, with blacks and Hispanics making up a much more substantial part of that party’s base. …
These results are based on aggregated data from more than 220,000 Americans surveyed from early January through Aug. 15 of this year as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Whites classified as highly religious are those who say religion is important in their daily lives and who report attending religious services weekly or almost every week. Hispanics include everyone who identifies as Hispanic, regardless of race.
The mixture of religion and politics in the United States came to the fore again this past weekend at Glenn Beck’s high-visibility “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, D.C. Beck mentioned God and religion frequently in his remarks. The rally was billed as nonpolitical, but the presence of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Beck’s involvement with the politically oriented Tea Party movement, and Beck’s own avowedly conservative persona and positions on the issues brought a political perspective to the event.
Gallup Daily tracking data reviewed in this analysis confirm that religion, along with race, is a significant factor in defining Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Eighty-eight percent of Republicans are white, compared with 71% of independents and 62% of Democrats. The majority of white Republicans are highly religious, while the substantial majority of white Democrats are less religious.
All in all, 47% of Republicans in the U.S. today can be classified as highly religious whites, compared with 24% of independents and 19% of Democrats.
Religious distinctions in the American political landscape today are underscored when one examines the political spectrum by both party and ideology. The percentage of highly religious white Americans within each of the resulting political groups ranges from a high of 50% among conservative Republicans to 13% among liberal Democrats. …
Of note is the substantial difference in the religious composition of conservative and moderate/liberal Republicans. White conservative Republicans are more likely to be highly religious than less religious, while white moderate/liberal Republicans are more frequently in the latter category. In similar but less dramatic fashion, both conservative and moderate/liberal white Democrats are more likely to be highly religious than are liberal white Democrats, although in all Democratic groups, less religious whites predominate over highly religious whites.
Americans who identify as Republicans in America today, particularly those who identify as conservative Republicans, are disproportionately likely to be highly religious whites, in contrast with both the population as a whole and the other political segments. Republicans are not monolithically white and religious, however; half are either less religious whites or people of other racial or ethnic groups. But conservative Republicans have the highest proportion of religious whites of any of the six major partisan/ideological groups — including almost four times as many on a proportionate basis as is the case among liberal Democrats — which highlights the significance of religion in today’s political landscape.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has had his daily intelligence briefing and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
In a bit of renewed good news on the economy, unemployment claims dropped for the second straight week.
And retail sales rose in August.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is conducting negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the State Department.
At 8:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with the rest of his national security team on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other related matters in the White House Situation Room.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama receives his daily economic briefing in the Oval Office.
Having ended U.S. combat operations in Iraq, as promised, Obama pivoted immediately to Middle East peace. The talks have been complicated by attacks on Israelis by Hamas terrorists and by insistence among some Jewish fundamentalists that settlement in disputed areas continue.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this morning opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years.
Obama is monitoring geopolitical crises in Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq.
The governance situation in Iraq remains unsettled nearly six months after national parliamentary elections. Vice President Joe Biden is working again to get the various factions to coalesce in a national unity government, even as Sunni leaders begin to fragment.
FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks, much of them around the chronic California budget crisis.
… THE CALIFORNIA AS FIRST “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND JERRY BROWN. … From my March 2nd column.
Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate in fall 2008, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. You can listen to my video webchat last year with Schwarzenegger here. It covers most of the major issues and also reveals his cameo in the latest Terminator movie.
** MAD MEN MAKES THE ALL-TIME TELEVISION PANTHEON, AND UNSPOOLS ANOTHER FINE EPISODE. As if it weren’t clear before, Mad Men has entered not only the current cultural pantheon but also the all-time television pantheon. As always, there be spoilers ahead.
Before we get to Mad Men’s third straight Emmy Awards win as the best dramatic series and what that means, as well as the details of another fine episode in “Waldorf Stories” and what that may mean, let’s get one thing out of the way right now. We finally know how Don Draper got hired at Sterling Cooper. He didn’t!
How perfectly Don Draperesque is that? But before we return to that, and the rest of the latest episode, let’s look at Mad Men in the pantheon. …
** HARSH REALM: THE MEG WHITMAN PROGRAM FOR FUTURE CALIFORNIA. Billionaire Meg Whitman keeps plugging what she says is a program for California’s future as a key reason to make her governor of the nation’s largest state. She must be counting on people not paying attention to what her program actually is.
For quite awhile, Whitman, still struggling to develop any momentum in her race for California governor against Jerry Brown despite having already broken all spending records for a non-presidential candidate in American history, has touted her program as the reason to vote for her as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successor. Namely, that she has one and Brown doesn’t. Or didn’t. Lately, Brown has released a lot of program points, none of which are a surprise since they reflect what he’s been doing and saying throughout his decades in public life.
But that didn’t stop Whitman from trying to have what she calls her “book” — it’s actually a 40-page pamphlet, with big type and many pictures and graphics — placed in California’s public libraries. Virtually all of them turned her down, since it’s campaign advertising and decidedly not a book. Nor did it stop her from using it as one her many excuses to avoid debates with Brown (I have a policy book and he doesn’t have one yet), or from mailing it around the state, or from having it lovingly photographed for one of her incessant TV ads.
For quite awhile, the much diminished state press corps bought into the whole Whitman-has-a-program thing. No one really took a look at what it is. Which is interesting, because the program makes no sense. … From my August 30th feature.
** MAD MEN REVIEW: ANOTHER FAMOUS ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY. … From my August 25th review.
** MAD MEN REVIEW: “THE REJECTED” IS A ROUTINE EPISODE, BUT BETTY DRAPER HAS JOINED THE X-MEN! … From my August 18th review.
** HARSH REALM: MEG WHITMAN AND THE C.E.O. MYTH. … From my August 17th feature.
** MAD MEN REVIEW: “THE GOOD NEWS” IS SAD YET VERY GOOD. … From my August 9th review.
** HARSH REALM: THE LEGACY THAT MEG WHITMAN INVOKES. … From my August 7th feature.
** MAD MEN REVIEW: “CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR,” EXCEPT FOR THESE THREE WISE GUYS. … From my August 3rd review.
** HARSH REALM: THE POST-PRESS ERA AND MEG WHITMAN. … From my July 30th feature.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $74 per barrel.
This is up about $40 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
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| Comments (50) |
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
anyone watch the debate last night?
Hillary Clinton is doing well.
Another awesome front page HuffPost essay on Mad Men! The show is great, a modern day classic.
She’s so much better as Barack’s secretary of state than she’d be as President…
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hillary Clinton is doing well.
It’s off to a good start. Nobody’s gotten this far in a long time.
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:39 am
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
No, I didn’t watch it. How was it?
Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:41 am
anyone watch the debate last night?
“No, I didn’t watch it. How was it?”
I didn’t get to see it either. I was wondering what New Westers thought.
I saw it. I’ll write about it in an item coming up.
I thought Boxer got the best of Fiorina, but it was mostly a non-event.
Less than fascinating.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:55 am (Edit)
No, I didn’t watch it. How was it?
Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:41 am
anyone watch the debate last night?
We’ll see.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:54 am (Edit)
It’s off to a good start. Nobody’s gotten this far in a long time.
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:39 am
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
Heh.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:54 am (Edit)
She’s so much better as Barack’s secretary of state than she’d be as President…
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hillary Clinton is doing well.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Mad Men is very rich cultural vein.
> Requiem says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:53 am (Edit)
Another awesome front page HuffPost essay on Mad Men! The show is great, a modern day classic.
“Brown spied South, who had been trashing him up and down the state despite having no apparent financial interest in doing so, and sat down next to to him.”
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Which film is that quote from?
Indeed?
Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:16 am
Heh.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:54 am (Edit)
She’s so much better as Barack’s secretary of state than she’d be as President…
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hillary Clinton is doing well.
They have to make progress.
Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:15 am
We’ll see.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:54 am (Edit)
It’s off to a good start. Nobody’s gotten this far in a long time.
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:39 am
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
I had something better to do at 7 in August…
Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:15 am
Less than fascinating.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:55 am (Edit)
No, I didn’t watch it. How was it?
Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:41 am
anyone watch the debate last night?
I just read 6 articles about the end of legislative session and there was a distinct consensus: it was a fracking train wreck.
More video today?
Ya gotta figure that since Dan Walters gave the nod to Boxer over Fiorina, it wasn’t a good night for the challenger. But, again, if you stage a debate and nobody watches…
Brasky, full disclosure, Im a Boxer supporter. My take was that Fiorina was more articulate than Boxer, but lost because she took the conservative position every time. On Gay Marriage, Guns, Iraq, Environment ( wouldnt even take a stand on 23) Abortion.
I think she is too far to the right to win and the Boxer folks will exploit her positions.
You have to give Carly credit though; she hasnt tried to fudge things like Whitman. She is an unapologetic conservative.
Im sure very few people watched, which is a real shame because it was a very good debate.
Looking forward to Bills analysis.
18.Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:53 am
I just read 6 articles about the end of legislative session and there was a distinct consensus: it was a fracking train wreck
—–
And you’re still awake????
I bet the republicans are going to regret running these two rich entitled CEO types for the top offices in California.
I hope so..
Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:04 am
I had something better to do at 7 in August…
Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:15 am
Less than fascinating.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:55 am (Edit)
No, I didn’t watch it. How was it?
Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:41 am
anyone watch the debate last night?
It won’t.
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:39 am
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
Whitman is soooo delusional, and here comes JB!!
** CALIFORNIA 2010: BOXER WINS SENATE DEBATE, WHITMAN KNOCKS SCHWARZENEGGER, JERRY BROWN STARTS SPINNING IT UP.
I was out of ice cream…
Jack Aubrey says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I hope so..
Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:04 am
I had something better to do at 7 in August…
27.Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I was out of ice cream…
—-
Thought for sure you would be home prepping for the upcoming Cal football season. Don’t you guys have a very tough opener this weekend?
I am looking forward to this. It will make for an enjoyable Labor Day Weekend read regarding California’s next Governor.
“And you’re still awake????”
Zzzzzzzzzz…..
“Actually, you can’t shove state legislators around like they are little PR people.”
Ha! That woke me up!
In future, I’ll try to be more discreet!
>Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:03 am
Why, yes, you have …
> Elizabeth Miller says:
September 2, 2010 at 7:55 am (Edit)
Have I really been that transparent and demonstrably obvious, Bill? In any event, it’s not as bad as all that.
Seriously, though, if we are to keep Secretary Clinton on the straight and narrow she should have a project that is worthy of consuming the bulk of her time. And, at long last, the myriad variables that impact upon the Middle East peace process may be aligning in such way as to make this a monumental achievement for her. I hope that is true.
Israelis and Palestinians meet to meet. Such is progress.
What new video today?
Obama with Middle Eastern leaders for the peace talks, and the anniversary of a critical Korean War battle coinciding with a major naval exercise.
It is hopefully more than that.
> sergei says:
September 3, 2010 at 4:05 am (Edit)
Israelis and Palestinians meet to meet. Such is progress.
Where’s the fun in that?
> Elizabeth Miller says:
September 2, 2010 at 8:57 pm (Edit)
In future, I’ll try to be more discreet!
>Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:03 am
Why, yes, you have …
> Elizabeth Miller says:
September 2, 2010 at 7:55 am (Edit)
Have I really been that transparent and demonstrably obvious, Bill? In any event, it’s not as bad as all that.
Seriously, though, if we are to keep Secretary Clinton on the straight and narrow she should have a project that is worthy of consuming the bulk of her time. And, at long last, the myriad variables that impact upon the Middle East peace process may be aligning in such way as to make this a monumental achievement for her. I hope that is true.
There ya go …
> Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 7:14 pm (Edit)
“Actually, you can’t shove state legislators around like they are little PR people.”
Ha! That woke me up!
It’s up now.
> marcos leon says:
September 2, 2010 at 6:55 pm (Edit)
I am looking forward to this. It will make for an enjoyable Labor Day Weekend read regarding California’s next Governor.
I know USC played Hawaii last night, but don’t know how they did.
> Sacramento Solon says:
September 2, 2010 at 6:04 pm (Edit)
27.Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I was out of ice cream…
—-
Thought for sure you would be home prepping for the upcoming Cal football season. Don’t you guys have a very tough opener this weekend?
It’s up now.
>#
Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:38 pm (Edit)
Whitman is soooo delusional, and here comes JB!!
** CALIFORNIA 2010: BOXER WINS SENATE DEBATE, WHITMAN KNOCKS SCHWARZENEGGER, JERRY BROWN STARTS SPINNING IT UP.
Don’t be so pessimistic. At least they’re talking. That makes it harder to shoot.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:19 pm (Edit)
It won’t.
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:39 am
Good remarks by President Obama, I hope his peace plan works.
Perhaps.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:18 pm (Edit)
I bet the republicans are going to regret running these two rich entitled CEO types for the top offices in California.
It doesn’t help that the coverage is as boring as the “action.”
> Sacramento Solon says:
September 2, 2010 at 4:03 pm (Edit)
18.Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:53 am
I just read 6 articles about the end of legislative session and there was a distinct consensus: it was a fracking train wreck
—–
And you’re still awake????
There ’tis …
> mitchell says:
September 2, 2010 at 2:40 pm (Edit)
Brasky, full disclosure, Im a Boxer supporter. My take was that Fiorina was more articulate than Boxer, but lost because she took the conservative position every time. On Gay Marriage, Guns, Iraq, Environment ( wouldnt even take a stand on 23) Abortion.
I think she is too far to the right to win and the Boxer folks will exploit her positions.
You have to give Carly credit though; she hasnt tried to fudge things like Whitman. She is an unapologetic conservative.
Im sure very few people watched, which is a real shame because it was a very good debate.
Looking forward to Bills analysis.
So you think this is bad for Boxer?
> Clutch J says:
September 2, 2010 at 1:15 pm (Edit)
Ya gotta figure that since Dan Walters gave the nod to Boxer over Fiorina, it wasn’t a good night for the challenger. But, again, if you stage a debate and nobody watches…
They don’t know what they’re doing.
> Brasky says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:53 am (Edit)
I just read 6 articles about the end of legislative session and there was a distinct consensus: it was a fracking train wreck.
Quite.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 11:03 am (Edit)
Indeed?
Bill Bradley says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:16 am
Heh.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:54 am (Edit)
She’s so much better as Barack’s secretary of state than she’d be as President…
Jonas Blane says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hillary Clinton is doing well.
I believe that is from Sun Tzu …
> Dana says:
September 2, 2010 at 10:37 am (Edit)
“Brown spied South, who had been trashing him up and down the state despite having no apparent financial interest in doing so, and sat down next to to him.”
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Which film is that quote from?
… But it was in Godfather II, uttered by Michael Corleone.