How we could have beaten the recall

Personally, I think the only way we could have beaten the recall would have been by putting Diane Feinstein on the second ballot. I think that if Feinstein had announced, Arnold would have passed. I don't think it's any coincidence that Arnold waited until after Feinstein announced she wouldn't run before declaring his own candidacy.

If Feinstein had run, it seems more likely that Riordin and not Arnold would have run. And I think it would have been much harder for the Republicans to unite around Riordin as they did around Arnold.

And it's possible that if polls showed Feinstein winning on the second ballot, support for the recall (especially among Republicans) would have dropped and turnout would have been lower.

Of course, I could be wrong. Certainly many Democrats, including Davis himself, thought that putting a popular Democrat like Feinstein on the second ballot would have hurt his chances, because a lot of Democrats would have wanted to replace him with Feinstein. But honestly, it's hard for me to see any other way for Davis to have pulled this off.

We're seeing a wildly un-popular governor (if I had to pay $800 to register my car every year I'd be pissed, too) go down to a celebrity. There's no corelation to 2004 and the chimp and there's no proof whatsoever that Ahnold can run a state.

It's the old be careful what you wish for thing. He got elected, now what the hell is he going to do.

bit better and less frightened that we've just dropped off the edge into hopeless fascism.

I'm so depressed.

the strategy in the sure to be next recall. After finding out that Ahnold is all form and no substance (gee, there's a surprise) another recall will be ordered. The Dems HAVE to field a strong candidate to counter the "Ahnold is a movie star, isn't it cool to have a movie star as our governor" crowd. Feinstein certainly fits the bill on that count. After Ahnold screws California even more than it is now, they'll hopefully wake up.