Links and Minifeatures 11 09 Wednesday (Election Letdown)

Well, it looks like California lived down to its reputation. Propositions 74 (change the "teachers make two years and they're impossible to fire" rule), 75 (change law so members have to approve public union political disclosures), 76 (revoke the schools "license to loot") and 77 (revoke part of the Incumbent Politicians Protection Act by giving district drawing authority to judges), all failed. The only bright spots on the statewide news were that 78, 79, and 80 also failed.



I realize it was necessary, but special elections are activists elections. It it worth noting that in San Diego where we elected a new mayor, 74 and 75 got the majority of the vote. Had Arnold waited a year with a governor's race on the line, it might have made the difference between losing all four and winning all four.



Captain's Quarters has a different take. He thinks it's a hole in Arnold's mandate from two years ago; I disagree. I think Arnold got impatient and made a large tactical error by holding the election in an off year.



Can he revisit the issues? I don't think so. It's one of those "The decision is made" things. So this is not good by any stretch of the imagination.



Hugh Hewitt has some advice for Arnold. Comprehensive, well reasoned - and I'm not sure I agree. California is so far to the left it's not funny. You can't win statewide as a hardliner on the right. But Wilson and Deukmejian won by running as centrists, and except for Deukmejian's first win, they were fairly wide margins. I agree that Arnold should appoint more center-right judges. But I'd be more optimistic of his chances if he dragged Pete Wilson or George Deukmejian out of retirement than Bruce Herchensohn.

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HT to Instapundit for a pointer to an Opinion Journal article about what is wrong with the CIA: Basically everything.



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Aaron's CC is creating a deck of Cards with prominent Blogs as various cards. Nominations for facecard clubs are up. Forced to choose just one, I went with Mudville, but I also would like to mention Blackfive, Indepundit, and (Fellow Raging RINO) Argghhh! as being particularly voteworthy.