Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tides May be Turning in the Golden State...

As a Catholic in California I've learned not to expect to much politically. I go to the polls and vote, and I know that the majority will vote in the exact opposite way most of the time (I have been pleasantly surprised once or twice recently).

One gets used to being disappointed again and again. Our voters will tell the world that 12 year olds should be allowed to get abortions without their parent's knowledge and for years have kept reelecting the same idiots over and over again and then wonder aloud why our state seems to be in a downward spiral that it just can't seem to pull out of (doing the same thing and expecting different results is crazy, but this is California). So when I read this article this afternoon, it made me smile:
Political sea change?
Californians turn against Pelosi, healthcare reform according to pollster; Boxer could be in trouble too, says another poll

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who describes herself as a Catholic but has rejected the counsel of her own bishop, has apparently fallen from grace with California voters.

While likely safe in the liberal San Francisco district she represents, a Field Poll shows Pelosi as widely unpopular elsewhere in the state. “More Californians now offer an opinion of the job being done by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their views are more negative than positive,” said a statement released by the Field Poll in late January. “At present, 46% of voters disapprove and 39% approve of her performance overall.

...

Pelosi’s remarks in a Dec. 21 interview with Newsweek magazine, in which she reaffirmed her support for abortion and same-sex marriage even though she had been previously counseled by San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, prompted a written response from the archbishop in the archdiocesan newspaper Catholic San Francisco.

“It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel -- racism, infidelity, abortion, theft,” wrote Archbishop Niederauer in his Jan. 15 column. “Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right.

...

Also in possible political trouble is California’s junior senator, liberal Democratic firebrand Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this coming November. The highly respected Cook Political Report has moved heavily Democratic California to the category of a toss-up state in the upcoming senate race based on recent polling. A Feb. 15 Rasmussen poll shows Boxer barely ahead of various Republican challengers – by 4% against Carly Fiorina, by 5% against Chuck Devore, by 4% against Tom Campbell.

...

Leisa Brug Kline, DeVore for California campaign manager, said in a prepared statement released the same day as the Rasmussen poll, "This morning's Rasmussen numbers affirm what we've known for some time: that Barbara Boxer is eminently vulnerable…”
It's raining here right now, but after reading this it seems a little brighter outside. Maybe common sense will prevail in the upcoming elections. It would certainly be a welcome change!


Note: Cook Political Report would like to point out that they didn't rate the state "Toss Up" (it was "Lean" when I looked) so Cal Catholic had that part wrong in their article. On the upside my little-read blog is apparently read enough to cause people to become indignant and rude. I'm not sure why that continues to surprise me, but it does.

I said that reading this article makes me happy and posted an excerpt from the article saying it cheered up my day and someone demands an apology. Hmmmm... you might want to demand your apology from the person who wrote article. And try take yourself a little less seriously.

4 comments:

  1. That is an awesome quote from the archbishop!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is what I love about the internet NOT. Someone just makes something up, totally fabricates it, and anyone looking at it assumes it's true because, IT'S ON THE INTERNET.

    For the record, the 2010 California Senate race is NOT rated Toss Up by the Cook Political Report, it has never been rated a Toss Up, and no Toss Up rating is currently or has been contemplated by the editors of the Cook Political Report. If you had bothered to look at The Cook Political Report http://www.cookpolitical.com/node/4060, you could see the ratings, and look back at every version of our 2010 ratings going back to November 2008 and see that it has never been in the Toss Up category.

    I would appreciate a correction and an apology would certainly be nice.

    Charlie Cook
    Editor and Publisher
    The Cook Political Report
    www.cookpolitical.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mr. Cook-

    You might notice that it was a link from a new source (you can click on those nice little blue letters to be taken to the original site) so you can tell Cal Catholic that it isn't rated "Toss Up." Your absolutely right, I didn't check out your site: I'd never heard of it before and don't plan on returning to it again.

    The point of the entire article was that Barbara Boxer has slipped it in the polls (clearly someone over at Cal Catholic made a mistake and while I'll print your comment for everyone to read I'm not going to apologize for someone else mistake). It was entirely clear that I'd posted a highlight of an article from another site with a link to that site.

    And I'll keep praying that it's much more than a Toss Up and that Barbara Boxer is out of office and far from doing any more harm to our state in the very near future.

    I'm surprised you have the time to go around reading little blogs by stay-at-home moms.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Cam,

    You should charge for people to advertise their crappy political blogs.

    Dear Mr. Chuck Cook,

    I'm sorry your website is doing so poorly and is read by no one, that you have to complain to people on a motherhood blog.

    Sincerely,
    Thomist

    ReplyDelete

I love comments and I read every single comment that comes in (and I try to respond when the little ones aren't distracting me to the point that it's impossible!). Please show kindness to each other and our family in the comment box. After all, we're all real people on the other side of the screen!