Geoff Metcalf
July 10,  2002

The conventional wisdom of political insiders, consultants and wonks for some time has been that Bill Simon just doesn’t have his campaign together sufficiently to win the California gubernatorial race.  However, those same observers acknowledge that Gray Davis does have the capacity to lose the race.

One of the more interesting whispered observations about the incumbent is the compelling similarity in personality (or lack of personality) displayed by Davis and how his actions mirror those of ‘Tricky Dick’.

I previously observed, “Despite the gaggle of systemic problems harassing the Davis administration, the conventional wisdom from the experts is the Simon campaign is still dead in the water.  Go figure.

Conservative talk show hosts, columnists and GOP central committee faithful presume Governor Gray Davis is dead meat.

• He has taken a $12-Billion surplus and converted it into an almost $30-Billion deficit.
• His mismanagement of the energy crisis has been an epic goat rope SNAFU.
• His focus and priority on fund raising has overshadowed any and all executive priorities.
• His administration suffers from systemic, chronic management/mismanagement failings that should speed him to the political trash heap of history.

Those “systemic problems” I alluded to are not recent developments.  Davis has been the root cause of policy and procedure blunders since his first week in office.

I remember the stories of FedEx packages being delayed because “the governor had to decide who (which secretary) would drop it off…”.  It may sound like a bad micro management seminar story but it happened.

The list of scandals, buck passing, recriminations, and hissy fits are axiomatic with the Davis administration.  Remember the disaster when Gray told the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board that the legislatures job was to implement HIS vision?  Oracle is bad but it is merely a symptom…an event personifying the process.

Notwithstanding the façade of calm that appears bland, the volatility of the real Gray Davis is increasingly becoming the capitol buzz.

The seesawing personality swings from depressed to rabid have even those supposedly close to the governor getting hinky.

Speaking off the record (under a blood oath of anonymity) one columnist told the Western Political Review, “There’s more than just the scandals to look at.  Davis’ personality alternates between a catatonic state of oblivion and a frenzied state of panic over the upcoming election….that sounds awfully Nixonian if you ask me.”  And he ain’t the Lone Ranger in that assessment.

I am reminded of the play “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade-”.  In other words, the Davis administration is theater of the absurd with the significant difference being the consequences are real and will be born by the entire state.

WesternPR said, “Apparently being on the Governor’s policy or political staff is no picnic. No one expects it to get any better any time soon.”

No matter what Davis does or doesn’t do his polling numbers remain lower than whale excrement with no prospect for improvement on the horizon.  In fact if or when a reporter actually confirms the ubiquitous rumor that Davis schedules fund raising events FIRST and THEN (post forma) arranges for some ‘official state business’ to justify traveling on our dime, stuff will hit the fan.

Perhaps the most tragic irony in this political psychodrama isn’t the Nixonian personality of Davis.  No, there is no word yet of Davis walking the halls talking to pictures or kneeling down with Gary South to pray, or scowling at cameras outside an Oracle hearing chanting “I am not a crook!” The most tragic irony is the cruel reality of unintended consequences.

Bill Jones could and should have been the heir apparent to the governor’s office.  No one wants to talk about it, but if Jones had not ticked off the Bush administration with his overt endorsement of John McCain in the primary…if he had thrown his support to Bush, things would be much different.  If Jones had not alienated the Bush camp Bill Jones would have crushed Gray Nixon Davis.

As Edward Albee once wrote, “What is gained is loss….”

A nationally recognized talk radio personality, 
Geoff Metcalf's
columns appear regularly in CalNews.com. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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