Reading

Matthew Miller on Arnold..
Interesting pro-Arnold reading from a left perspective.

The real key - unknowable at this writing - is Arnold's view of George W. Bush and his domestic priorities. Bush's "compassionate" persona is appealing. But you have to follow policy relatively closely - or at least listen to advisers or to a wife who does - to understand that Bush's "compassion" is a marketing hoax, belied entirely by his budget priorities.

The key to Arnold's ability to transform the GOP and the national debate would be for Arnold to repudiate Bush's tax cuts as senselessly favoring people like himself when the resources should be used for more pressing national needs.

Arnold would have unique standing to say, "You know, my campaign is about California, but I've saved $X million already from the Bush tax cuts, and there's nothing wrong with asking someone like me to have paid the few percent more I paid at the end of Clinton administration - especially when it helps keep the budget in balance and funds programs for poor children."

Importantly, this view is entirely consistent with a call to scrap crazy regulations that hurt California's business climate.

This one move, because of the earthquake and discussion it would generate, would at a stroke reclaim the center of political debate from the rightward lurch that GOP zealotry and Democratic timidity have created. It could alter the dynamics of the presidential race in 2004, and policy outcomes for years afterward.

Of course, I'm hoping Davis blocks the recall wth a landslide- you'd even think it possible if the audience for Bill Mahr (Davis was on the other night) had anything to do with it.