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Arnie!





Californians!



As a proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, I can report that the coup d'etat went off perfectly last night. As Alternet warned, a coup was in the works and, voila, here we are. Over the next 30-40 days there will be a sudden and decisive change in the state government. The Constitutionally-allowed vote was of course completely illegal, despite all those legally approved signatures, that the entire procedure is outlined in the State Constitution, etc. And by the sheer force of the vote, this coup has succeeded.



Ha! Must suck being them.



60+% voter turn out, largest since 1982. 60+% of the vote going to the Republicans. Arnie doesn't win by a squeak; current count gives him 48% of the vote. His plurality is larger than what Davis got for his election or re-election. That percentage is liable to go up as the absentee ballots get counted, since those ballots tend to be convervative.



A huge percentage of Democrats abandoned the party ticket and voted for Arnie. Ditto Hispanics. Ditto unions. Ditto damn near everyone. Art Torres and the state Democrat machine must have just shit at these results, along with a muttered, "Whuhappened?"



To throw back their oft-heard refrain: Hey, stupid, it's the economy!



The next few years should prove to be interesting. For now, we get to see if Davis's staff is as gracious in defeat as he was last night with his concession speech. Mind you, I still dislike and distrust the man, but considering that he has spent a life-time in politics, that his political career very probably ended last night, he gave an excellent speech. I hope he and his backers live up to his tone and concessions.

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