A guide for the perplexed

Mark Steyn was one of those who predicted a decisive Schwarzenegger victory at a time when some polls were showing Bustamante ahead, and many pundits were suggesting that, as essentially the only Democratic in the field, Bustamante was likely to prevail. Now, Steyn offers his thoughts on the meaning of Arnold’s victory. Steyn thinks that the California election highlights the shortage of talent in the Democratic party:
“The fact that in the most populous state in the nation the two leading Democrats are Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante is as telling as anything. The gubernatorial pool is where you look for presidential talent, and right now their only star governor is Jennifer Granholm, who can’t run for president because she was born in British Columbia. That’s why in Thursday’s debate half the presidential candidates are sad-sack senators dulled by decades of deal-making and Beltwayspeak and the other half are goofs and oddballs. The shortage of talent is so severe they’ve had to parachute in Wesley Clark, a man who was playing Republican fund-raisers and waving pompons for Bush and Cheney the day before yesterday.”
Steyn is gracious enough to offer some advice to those Democrats, if any, who are intelligent enough to be perplexed: “If I were a Dem, I’d go with Howard Dean. Even if he loses, he’ll de-Clintonize the party along the way, which ought to be the most important priority. Otherwise, it’s all down to Sen. Rodham Clinton in 2008.”

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