W. Catches a Break

President Bush hasn’t had a lot of good luck lately, but the California recall election has been a boon to him and must be a terrible frustration to the national Democrats. For several weeks, at a time when the news cycle would otherwise have been dominated by Democratic challengers’ attacks on him, the failure to find WMDs in Iraq and turmoil, real or imagined, in that country, the public’s attention has been diverted to a much more entertaining spectacle–and, more important, one where Republicans are on the offensive. Just when the Democrats thought momentum was going their way, attention shifted to an area where it clearly wasn’t, and their public face became Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante. Now, assuming Arnold wins today, we can look forward to another week of good news for Republicans and bad news for Democrats.
By the way, Californian Steve Hayward (author of The Age of Reagan and Churchill on Leadership) tells us: “I don’t believe the late polls; I think it is going to be a near blowout for recall/Arnold.” Let’s hope he’s right.