| Thanks to the power of twitter, we have some real-time reporting from this afternoon's "debate" between Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner. They each came kitted out with props. Campbell apparently is a fan of whiteboards, and Poizner brought massive copies of the current California budget. Ooh, fun!
But neither actually addressed the real problem: the economic crisis in California. Instead, they choose to address the symptoms by cutting spending from the California budget. Robert described Campbell's "plan", but Poizner is even more ludicrous. Apparently a "process" makes massive cuts palatable
Poizner says it's "distasteful" to talk about cuts without a "process." LAT's George Skelton says "process doesn't solve budget problem." (John Myers twitter)
And despite any stories about tea bags in the ballot, the plural of anecdote is not data. (My apologies to Raymond Wolfringer.) Is the symbolism more robust with a teabag in the ballot? Sure, but symbolism alone does not and should not drive the narrative.
The narrative is this: Californians are sick and tired of a dysfunctional government. They want quality schools and services that work for California. And while some taxes aren't all that popular, there are a lot of taxes that could pass provided that the Governor provided some real leadership. Rather than just sitting behind a podium trying to scare people, we need a leader that is willing to go to bat for Californians.
Tea bags are a distraction from what is the sad fact facing California: we are about to Hoover our economy, and the Republicans are cheering it on. |
