Various right-leaning California friends of mine keep telling me that gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner doesn’t have enough name recognition so I figured I’d begin a relentless personal campaign to do my part to change that. I might start painting his name on the door of every registered Republican in the state.
Why?
Because, if our ballot choices next November are Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown California is screwed in ways I can’t describe without turning this into a porn blog. And then my mother would never be able to read this. Which she doesn’t anyway, but that’s another story.
Meg Whitman’s public appearances are, to date, only slightly more frequent than Big Foot’s. When she does show up, she delivers statements that seem to have been prepared by the BORG then flees before she can have any contact with the common folk.
Yet she remains dauntingly (to some, not me) ahead in the polls.
This is due in large part to the fact that, in a celebrity obsessed culture, we’re the state who manufactures them. Unfortunately, we don’t export them too. So somebody who has already been on a lot of magazine covers (even business mags) is afforded credibility that, more than likely, isn’t there. Just last week, Prince Frederic von Apenchimp threw his hat into the ring with a bold promise of fixing the state by lifting the ban on Cuban cigars. And this was reported as real news.
Meg is also on TV a lot right now. She never says anything but she’s there a lot and that’s driving the name recognition problem for Poizner too.
I don’t know how much money Steve has in the bank (first guess: more than I do) but I am imploring him to free up some of it for television ads. We’re both speaking at the same event in a couple of weeks, believe me, I’ll be in full implore mode. He has a very dynamic personality and outshines Whitman in every way once you start hearing him speak. (I spoke to Meg for about 45 seconds once. A lifelong insomniac, I was unable to keep my eyes open after half a minute.)
In an age that was less driven by the media, we might be able to hear these two debate. That, however, would require Ms. Whitman to complete a sentence without mentioning eBay, which seems to be problematic. Poizner is offering to debate her at the California Republican Party’s next convention but Meg is still ever-so-coy. Steve has a petition on his site to cajole Meg into answering a question. Any question.
The biggest problem with Meg Whitman is that she’s asking Californians to do something for her that she wasn’t willing to do for so many others: get off the couch and vote.
Apparently, Ms. Whitman didn’t vote for, like, ever. Her excuse is a disturbing mix of insult, stupidity and lameness that, in a sane world/state, should be enough to sink her candidacy.
She was too “busy” with “career and family”.
Registering to vote and actually voting can, as you all well know, take a good 50-55 minute chunk out of each decade of one’s life. Using Whitman’s logic, voting is a luxury that can only be enjoyed by underachieving college students and unemployed stoners. If that were true, Al Gore would have been president.
As with every other issue, Whitman fails to explain the specifics of why her career and family responsibilities were more time consuming than the average American’s. Perhaps it was the stress of having to take time decide what to tell her cook (a registered voter!) to make the kids for dinner.
Whitman’s Cheshire Cat campaign may end up working for her but it definitely won’t do anything for California. In an election year when Tea Party principles are dominating the narrative, Whitman is antithetical to them in almost every way. A Tea Party push and some national endorsements would go a long way in helping Steve Poizner get his name out there.
Let’s hope that happens soon. If it doesn’t, you’ll probably be seeing California for sale online after November.
On craigslist, of course, because eBay is SO early 2000s.
