Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Whitman Can't Buy Her Way Out of the Goldman Sachs Charges

May 04, 2010

There was a lot of interesting comments at the GOP debate for governor. A lot of crazy on immigration issues and a lot of magical thinking on budgetary issues. But that's for a different discussion. The exchange, and the charge, that is working right now against Meg Whitman is simple. She is a profiteer who put her own personal fortune over the best interests of her company and its shareholders.

I'll let Steve Poizner break it down for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQTYPYyZ3Lg

Everytime this clip, or Poizner's ad, is played, you can practically hear voters turning away from MoneyBags Whitman. She is part of a kleptocracy that thinks they can have what they want, when they want it. They are entitled, and Whitman thinks she's entitled to the governor gig. Her staff practically said as much when they demanded that Poizner drop out of the race.

Frankly, I have no favorites in the GOP primary, they are both far too conservative, and would move the state in the wrong direction. And it is really hard to tell which one is more out of touch with Californians. Could it be the Goldman Sachs billionaire or the man who thought $450,000 homes were the "wrong side of the tracks?" [ http://calitics.com/diary/11585/breaking-steve-poizners-book-is-a-sack-of-lies ]

It's a tough call. [ http://www.calitics.com/diary/11624/whitman-cant-buy-her-way-out-of-the-goldman-sachs-charges ]

Also Poizner ran this in April

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW-ZwttqxJQ

Poizner Indeed Closing Gap on Whitman

Wed May 05, 2010 at 14:12:06 PM PDT

I'm on the call with Steve Poizner's campaign, and they are reporting on their polling numbers that show a significant collapse in Meg Whitman's early lead.

According to the campaign, their internal polling showed Whitman led Poizner 59-11 in mid-February (called it their "Valentine's Day massacre"). However, since then, Poizner has closed gap to a 38-28 Whitman lead statewide, and outside the Bay Area, he's closed the gap to a 35-30 Whitman lead outside the Bay Area.

That's a pretty big collapse in Meg Whitman's numbers. Poizner was down nearly 50 points in February and is down 5 (outside CA). No wonder Mike Murphy was trying to slam Poizner on the Whitman campaign's own call - they're seeing 1/3 of the Republican primary electorate undecided with 5 weeks to go after a massive, unprecedented carpet bombing of the state's TV airwaves.

And a word on that electorate - Murphy said that the average likely Republican primary voter is over age 50. In case you thought the CA GOP was at all representative of California.

As to Poizner, what he's shown is that Whitman's support was very, very soft. That should not only give him hope that he might be able to win, but give Jerry Brown hope that he can build off his stronger base of support to run a strong campaign taking advantage of Whitman's weaknesses - arrogance, ties to Goldman Sachs, desire to destroy schools and other vital public services - to erode Whitman's very soft support.

The GOP primary just got a whole lot more interesting - and so too did the gubernatorial race as a whole. [ http://www.calitics.com/diary/11636/poizner-indeed-closing-gap-on-whitman ] - this comment -

fingers crossed (0.00 / 0)

[ This almost makes me want to give money to Poizner. I'd much rather have that racist and lying nutjob in the General than the press-shy and vacuous eMeg. ]

Links embedded in his comment -The Racist - Steve Poizner Stoking Racist Xenophobia for Political Gain [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anat-shenkerosorio/stoking-racist-xenophobia_b_520383.html ]

The Lying - What's That Smell? [ http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/406/true-urban-legends/extra ]