Dreaming of Carlyfornia

Mike Bloomberg and Mark Warner are two examples of wealthy business executives who have had electoral succes, but it is not always that easy- ask Al Checchi or Mitt Romney. I know Mitt was the governor in Massachusetts, but this is not a man who has successfully transitioned to politics:




Dubya Bush was a unique case- a constant business failure who ended up having electoral success. 
Carly Fiorina just might be in a class of her own. Here's how HP stock fared during her tenure as CEO:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Carly "helped John McCain by saying things like Sarah Palin couldn't run a major corporation (considering what a great job Carly did, that is really saying something).


Now Carly's running  for the US Senate in California. Her campaign website has been rightfully described as the worst campaign website ever:





Earlier  this week Carly rolled out her new attack video targeting Tom Campbell. 




 So many questions:
- Where did they get the wanna-be Morgan Freeman narrator?
- Which sheep are the ones we should aspire to be?
- Did Carly herself play the demon sheep?
- Did anyone know that there was such a thing as a demon sheep before this ad?
- How much did they pay the the demon sheep?
- Did they use their own animals or have to tell a rancher that they were creating a demon sheep political ad?


The good news is that John McCain thought she did a good job as CEO:



Meg Whitman will need to kick it up in order to keep pace with Carly.

Looking forward to seeing Tebow

The Saints vs. Colts makes for a pretty good Super Bowl match up- both teams were undefeated after 13 weeks, have high powered offenses and elite quarterbacks. But every year most Americans look forward to seeing the commercials (Monster.com's "I want to be a yes man" is one of my all time favorites). The most talked about commercial this year is the one featuring Tim Tebow and his mother. They tell the story of her difficult pregnancy with Tim and her decision to continue with the pregnancy.

A number of women's groups are protesting the ad (partly because it is funded by Focus on the Family). Perhaps they've had a sneak peek at the ad and it shows aborted fetuses, but it sounds like most people haven't even seen the ad yet. I'm hoping that it is an ad that celebrates the choice that Tebow's Mom made- she's obviously quite proud of her son and she has every right to be.

I'm anti-abortion- I believe that it is a tragedy for everyone involved. If this ad decreases even slightly the number of abortions in this country, that's a good thing. But I'm also pro-choice. Bill Clinton summed it up well when he said that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare."

Until we've actually seen the ad, I'll go back to picking a winner in the game and assessing how Tim Tebow will fare at QB in the NFL......I'm picking the Saints 35-24 and think Tebow will end up being a damn good QB.

What Gavin Newsom should do next

The SF Mayor had folks yammering when Maureen Dowd wrote an article in which Gavin appeared to indicate he was retiring from politics after his term expired. “This is it. God bless. It was fun while it lasted,” he said of his career, with a rueful smile. “Guys like me don’t necessarily progress very far, which is fine.”


The obvious move is for Newsom to run for Lt. Gov. He is at least considering it, although seeming to lean heavily against it according to KTVU.

If he wants to have a significant career in politics, it is the best move he can make. He's termed out as mayor, his gubernatorial campaign was a non-starter, no other logical races for him to get in to.

The current Dem contenders, Janice Hahn and Dean Florez, aren't exactly setting the world on fire. Hahn's biggest campaign coup so far is getting the endorsement of Ed Begley Jr. And Florez's biggest achievement is that he has no ties to Ed Begley Jr.

According to the Fresno Bee:

• Lieutenant governor: Florez reported raising $229,747 in the second half of 2009 and has $957,381 cash on hand. Democratic primary opponent Hahn, a Los Angeles City Council member who only recently entered the race, raised $420,691 and has $341,341 at her disposal.

So we are 5 months from the primary and both candidates have less than $1 million Cash on Hand. Newsom swamps them both in name rec and could easily raise that type of cash- he couldn't keep up with Jerry Brown, but Florez and Hahn he can take.

Lt. Gov is not a high profile job, but Newsom doesn't need to raise his profile. He should spend the time traveling the stay, going to all the red counties and SoCal and letting people see that he is not a fire breathing San Francisco radical (funny how many people in SF think he is  way too moderate).

If Whitman or Poizner becomes governor, Newsom is a front-runner in 4 years. If Jerry Brown wins, Newsom bides his time- either for 8 years or 4 if Jerry only runs for 1 term. Newsom would also have a great platform to run for Senate in 2012 if Feinstein declines to run for reelection (decent chance since she's 117 years old).

And with all the wackiness from Edwards, Sanford, Spitzer, Vitter, etc., the fact that Newsom slept with his campaign aide's wife is old news. Kind of.

Here's Eliot yucking it up with Colbert:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Eliot Spitzer
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Yuck!

I want to relegate John Edwards to the dimmest region of my memory, but more and more stuff just keeps coming out.  You'd think that the sex tape with his pregnant mistress, made while his wife was battling terminal cancer and he was running for President, would really be the lowest point of this nonsense. Now you've got whipping boy Andy Young revealing even more horrifying details. I think may go take a shower now.