The only thing that genuinely surprised me about the defeat of all the ballot initiatives in California yesterday was the defeat of the parental notification on abortions for minors proposition (73) which was only half-heartedly supported by Arnold. I thought the common sense of the thing AND the fact that Arnold was not out in front of the issue gave it at least some chance of passing. It failed--though not by much and considering the low voter turn-out, it might have passed in a more interesting election cycle.

Fellow Native Ohioan turned Californian, Hugh Hewitt has a wonderful open letter to "The Govinator" which, in sum, explains that Arnold’s failure was really a failure of so-called "moderate" Republicanism. It is the failure that should be expected when Republicans think they can march into office and practice the politics of "let’s get along" and distance themselves from their conservative base. It is naivete. Great quote: " . . . you have now run into the reality of California politics. The folks who don’t care much about politics, well, they really don’t care much about politics. They certainly can’t get you wins on their own. There aren’t enough of them." Arnold needs to surround himself with more reliable conservatives and start taking their advice. Probably wouldn’t be bad advice for the White House either. Read the whole thing. Worth a mug.