[lbo-talk] Myth Making on Schwarzenegger's victory

[Joseph Wanzala]

Neither Camejo nor Huffington ever had very much popularity outside of small 
progressive enclaves like West Los Angeles, Berkeley, Arcata, Humboldt 
County and certain areas in San Francisco. Of the two, Camejo had a much 
more considerable, albeit not significant, potential voter base because he 
had at least the Green Party vote. But he had no more or - and for the most 
part - less even than that. Had Ariana remained a Republican, who knows, she 
may have succeded as Arnold has done, if she had the blessing of the 
Republican nomenklatura. But running as a politically mercurial independent, 
who few people really trusted, she had no constituent base of any kind 
except vaguely defined 'sympathizers' who thought that she was charming and 
articulate.

California voters are much more conservative than is acknowledged, amny 
Democrats are 'Reaga-Democrats' and many of the young first-time-voters who 
voted for Arnold were the direct or indirect progency of this 
Reagan-Democrat tendency.

I think the best thing for progressives and liberals could have done would 
have been to convince Clint Eastwood or Warren Beatty to run (I''m only 
half-kidding ;-) What I do mean is for the Democrats to have run a popular 
Democrat like Leon Pannetta, John Vasconcelos, or even John Burton himself, 
but I think even that strategy may not have worked - but I'm sure it would 
have made a better showing than that of Cruz Bustamante a career Democratic 
party hack who could not even mobilize the Latino vote (who voted for Arnold 
at a rate of 3 ot of 5).

The fix was in, I think the reason why prominent Democrats like Feinstein, 
or the aforementioned did not jump in was that they realized they could not 
beat Arnold. The only hope was to try to stave-off the recall itself. But, 
alas, twas too late,

Joe W.


>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Myth Making on Schwarzenegger's victory
>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:05:44 -0400
>
>Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>
>>If the recall has told us anything, it is that it is time for the 
>>Democrats to jettison the DLC/Clintonista miliue.
>
>If so, why did Camejo and Huffington fall so flat?
>
>Doug
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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