Davis in deep trouble

A miracle might save Gray Davis from being recalled. On second thought, forget it. It wouldn’t be enough.

His unpopularity in California is setting new records. It’s hard to make graphs that show minuses that low.

Right or wrong, Davis has been blamed for many things and some of them are actually his fault.

The biggest Davis mistake was attacking Richard Riordan in the Republican primary. Davis, a Democratic governor, ended up naming his Republican opponent, Bill Simon, by convincing Republicans that Riordan was the bad guy.

Riordan would have creamed Davis last November and Davis knew it. So he annihilated Riordan in a negative campaign. As it turned out, the handpicked opponent—Simon—almost pulled it off, which tells us how vulnerable Davis was (and remains, for that matter).

If Davis had just let Riordan win in November, Davis could have been healing his wounds and preparing for the rematch.

But we still aren’t getting Riordan on the ballot. Instead we’re getting Arnold.

We almost like Schwarzenegger, if only we could understand him. We also like Arianna Huffington—for different reasons—and we can’t understand her either. What makes them attractive is that they aren’t politicians.

But Schwarzenegger’s widespread popularity will go into free fall if he doesn’t start answering questions. Nobody, not even a celebrity, can ride into office without telling us what he’ll do and how he’ll do it.

We’ve heard rumors that if a Republican wins (i.e., Schwarzenegger), the Democrats will start their own petition drive calling for—you guessed it—another recall.

Meanwhile the people who really deserve to be thrown out of office, California’s state legislators, are getting a reprieve.

Their incompetence almost makes Davis look good.