[quote=Djshakes]
I wasn’t around when Jerry was in office before. I hear from some that he is a loon, some say he is in the union’s pockets, some liked him. I have never heard anyone give him rave reviews….which makes me wonder why this state would elect him a second term. I’m all for giving someone a second chance. I am apprehensive as if you can’t get it done the first time than most likely the same approach won’t work a second. However, maybe he will take a different approach. We will have to see.
I don’t think the thread is about his performance as he has recently been elected. I think it is about the years of politics that got us into this mess from both sides of the isle and if it is too far gone to fix. Have we passed the tipping point? I think half would argue we have.[/quote]
We may have hit a tipping point, although I don’t think we have. I remember all the “Governor Moonbeam” remarks from back in the 1970s and the snickering about him dating Linda Ronstadt, but I also remember him eschewing the governor’s mansion for a condo in Sacto and driving himself to work in a Chrysler, too.
While I am conservative, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Meg Whitman and largely because I felt she would have botched the job horribly. I grew up in Silicon Valley and a lot of my friends still work there and not one of them has anything good to say about Meg Whitman (or Carly Fiorina, for that matter).
I think Jerry is a far different, far older and far more experienced dude than when he held office before. I was hugely impressed with what he did with Oakland, and I’ve always admired his intellect (probably because he’s a fellow Jesuit).
I would agree with zk, in that Jerry is spreading the pain equally between the GOP and the Dems, and I think he’s reached a point in his political career when he really doesn’t give a shit who he offends; he’s here to try and fix the problem. I very much liked the way he laid things out simply on the campaign trail, and I was disgusted by Whitman’s attempt to buy the election.
Jerry represents California in a way that Whitman never could, but to truly understand what I mean, you have to go back to the 1960s and 1970s, when most of this stupid shit started. And most of it had far less to do with the various governors and far more to do with California’s uniquely F’d up legislature.
