Arnold Schwarzenegger

Gray Davis and the L.A. Times go into overdrive to sink the Schwarzenegger campaign.

THE NEWS out of New England is vandals have defaced Robert Frost's farmhouse in Derry, New Hampshire, spray-painting the south side of the poet's house--a national landmark--with swastikas and the slogans "Arnold is a racist" and "Arnold is a Nazi." That makes it official: recall has taken the road more traveled--by partisan nimrods.

There are thing two things you should know about the controversies involving Arnold Schwarzenegger and his alleged groping of women and his supposed "admiration" of Adolph Hitler--well, three if you include the fact that Arnold apparently is guilty of some r

The Los Angeles Times is no longer just part of the story on recall, they're now part of the election.

SUDDENLY Tuesday's election is more than a recall. It has also become a referendum on the Los Angeles Times.

In an astonishing story from page A34 of Sunday's Times, Readers Angry at The Times for Schwarzenegger Stories, the paper struggles to report the damage done to its reputation over the past three days while at the same time offering a lengthy apologia from editor John Carroll.

We know how the contenders are spending the weekend, but what about recall's second stringers?

* Arnold's on a bus and on the defensive over Gropergate ("I have sometimes behaved badly," he said yesterday. "I have been on rowdy movie sets and have done things I thought were playful but I have offended people. I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize.") We'll see if the 200 prying reporters in tow will let Arnold change the subject.

* Gray Davis is on the ropes, hoping to somehow reverse the perception that he's on his way out.

The Schwarzenegger campaign is finally getting that feeling of inevitability. The only thing that could derail it would be some kind of bombshell. Oops.

THIS IS THE FACE of momentum and confidence (maybe too much so), six days before an election: Arnold Schwarzenegger, standing before a few hundred fans and advisors, a few hundred yards from the state Capitol, saying what he'll do in the first 100 days after he takes the oath of governor. Not if he's elected next Tuesday--when he's elected. "We are ready to take office," the Terminator declared yesterday. "We are ready to take action.

With one tiny exception, of course: The citizens of California.

By the way, have you noticed how rarely most people ever admit they were wrong? What's the big deal? Why don't more folks enjoy saying, "Well, I guess I was all wet on that one." I love being wrong. Seriously. I like getting ideas and pitching them, and if they ultimately (or even immediately) don't hold water, I try to learn something from my mistake and pitch another one. Most people never reassess their opinions on anything: movie reviewers, political pundits, wives . . .

A week from today Californians will settle the recall. And decide who has to deal with Proposition 54, the Racial Privacy Initiative.

WHAT IF TIGER WOODS, frustrated by his inability of late to win one of golf's majors, enrolled at UC-Berkeley to finish the degree he started years ago at Stanford? Tiger would have to identify himself by race, and that would land him in the rough. Woods calls himself a "Cablanasian" (Caucasian, black, Native American, and Asian). But because his father is African American, that's how Berkeley would categorize him.

ELECTIONS, like warfare, come down to turning points. And should Governor Gray Davis go down in flames a week from tomorrow, remember last Friday as the pivotal moment in California's recall election. The event was a West Hollywood rally for women voters.

Gray Davis as governor: every bit as bad as you've heard.

IN THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE California governor Gray Davis's job, no one bothers to defend the Davis record, not even Davis. Instead, in the September 24 gubernatorial debate, the lone Democrat Cruz Bustamante conspicuously distanced himself from Davis's policies, treating the governor like a political leper. California Democrats, by their silence, appear to concede that the prosecution has an ironclad case against him.

Does it ever. The total of high-paying manufacturing jobs lost on Davis's watch now exceeds a quarter million.

The recall election is no circus.

"IF THERE IS ONE THING non-Californians need to know about this campaign," said veteran GOP strategist Allan Hoffenblum towards the end of the mid-September state Republican convention in Los Angeles, "it's that it's not a 'circus.' It's not a 'spectacle.' It's not a joke." There has been a lot of nationwide bemusement at the campaign to subject Governor Gray Davis to a recall vote one year into his second term.

With recall just 10 days away, everything is in play, including McClintock, Davis, and a nasty little surprise for California car owners.

TEN MORE DAYS, then recall mercifully comes to a vote. Here are some items to consider over the weekend, while the candidates hopscotch California. As Linda Richman would say, "talk amongst yourselves."

(1) Jumping on the Bandwagon, or Life in the Slow Lane? State senator Tom McClintock won't quit the race, despite pressure from the upper echelons of California Republicans to rally behind a consensus candidate (you know who). "I don't know what it is that people find so astonishing about a politician who actually keeps his promises," McClintock told reporters yesterday.

The recall debate of '03 had everything--Terminator 4, Arianna, and even a Jim Stockdale moment.

A YEAR AGO, Stan Statham was California's answer to the Maytag repairman. As president of the California Broadcasters Association, he sat by in frustration while his planned gubernatorial debate in Sacramento failed to materialize (Governor Gray Davis, ahead in the polls, didn't want to risk a direct encounter with the Republican challenger, Bill Simon).

Last night, as he moderated CBA's recall debate--five candidates, gathered on the CSU-Sacramento campus--Statham went from the outhouse to the political penthouse.

A panel of the 9th Circuit meets today to decide the fate of recall. Could the most liberal court in the land side against the ACLU?

FORGET THE SPEECHES, rallies, town hall meetings, and whatever other mischief the recall candidates have planned for today. There's only one place to be and that's in San Francisco, at the corner of 7th and Mission Streets, where the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments over whether to postpone the October 7 election. If you're near a television this afternoon, C-SPAN and the cable new networks will broadcast the proceedings live, beginning at 1:00 p.m.

From the September 29, 2003 issue: What the Ninth Circuit says about the coming election.

THE NINTH CIRCUIT seems to specialize in reminding the country that judges don't come out of nowhere, that they are appointed by presidents, and that, generally speaking, Democratic presidents more than Republicans tend to appoint judges who enforce a "living" or "growing" Constitution that just happens to advance politically liberal ends.

Consider the Ninth Circuit's decision postponing the October 7 California recall election. The three judges on the panel were Harry Pregerson, Sidney Thomas, and Richard Paez.