Did Davis deserve to lose, or did he get screwed by the Republicans?

[AP]

There appear to be two schools of thought:

A) Davis made mistakes, the Dem Party is stupid, this election was winnable.

-and-

B) This whole thing was practically unwinnable. Davis played Allende to Arnold's Pinochet, and Bush's Nixon, and the Republicans extracted a very undremocatic win in the guise of democracy, and the media got a big assist in this victory.

I know there's a "somewere in the middle" answer that's probably closer to the truth, but I want to see where poeple line up if they have only these two poles from which to chose. So which is it?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[AP]

5. That might have been acknowledging the REpublicans were right.

And what if they pushed for a recall afterwards on the grounds that Bustamante wasn't elected to be governor.

And Cruz was the guy with the Enron lawsuits. You think they wouldn't have turned him into a pariah in 6 months?

This wasn't about who was the Governor. It was about not having a Republican governor.

[Name removed]

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[pmbryant]

2. I think it was winnable

But I'm not smart enough to know how, so I can't criticize.

:shrug:

--Peter

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. The R's Successfully Gamed The System....

And if we don't wise up this will be the norm not the exception....


Oh well, at least the opiate of the masses, sports, is available to me...

[ibegurpard]

4. You got that right.

n/t

[DerBeppo]

7. C.

Not winable with Davis as the canidate.

[Uben]

10. I'm not so sure

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there more votes against the recall (pro-Davis) than Arnold got? If this is true, then the majority was once again circumvented. In a second recall, Ahnold would need a full fifty percent, while the other candidates only need the largest percentage.

[liberalnurse]

8. The entire recall was an abuse to democracy!

I can't understand why so few recognized this little fact.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. No one took this seriously

until way too late. Then they thought cool logic and reason, Grays strong points , would win over flash glitz and platitudes.

Look waht happened.

[GainesT1958]

11. I look at it this way:

The RECALL: I blame it squarely on the Repubs. They've proven over and over in the last decade that they don't respect Democratic electoral victories, starting with Clinton's. They felt the same about Gray Davis, and used the budget problems the Enron-induced power shortages got him into as the catalyst for it all. Plus, they used his personality. Which leads us to:

Davis' BEHAVIOR in all this: The recall brought out the worst in Gray Davis, a politician whose name truly fits him--kind of like Tom Delay's fits HIM, y'know? :eyes:

Davis was arrogant, selfish, did NOT help Cruz Bustamante (hey, even if he didn't LIKE the guy, some help was needed--not to mention some unity!) x( Moreover, Davis should have resigned when the recall was certified. That would have made Bustamante governor, and negated the recall. Ahhnold might not even have bothered with the race, and so Californians wouldn't have faced the prospect--now reality--of the "Gropenator" as their next governor. Davis let his selfishness make Californians pay for a $50 million special election they didn't even need to have, and cost our party the governorship of the world's sixth-largest economy (and the state with 55 electoral votes next year). Now, I really don't expect all this circus to lead to the posibility of Dub carrying California--that's too big a miracle for even the most blinded media whores to help him pull off--but I'd rather have a popular Gov. Bustamante going around the state with our nominee than Ahhnold traveling with Dub and the political AND entertainment press-the ORIGINAL media whores!--sucking up to their every move.

Californians, you need to get crackin' on strategy for the next recall--with any luck, Ahhnold will richly deserve it by then--and will have lived down to his abilities!

B-)