APING TED :

Gray Davis a reluctant governor; would Bill Simon be any better? (Dan Walters, 7/23/02, Sacramento Bee)

"On [Gray Davis'] watch, California has careened from crisis to crisis," Davis' Republican challenger, Bill Simon, said Monday, quite accurately. But, irony upon irony, Simon said it while demonstrating the same tendency himself.

Simon announced that after many weeks of saying he wouldn't reveal his personal income tax returns, he had changed his mind.

Were the tax return debacle the only instance of Simon's procrastination, one might be inclined to cut him some slack -- perhaps accepting his
explanation that he was just trying to protect the privacy of his familial co-investors. But on many other occasions, Simon has waffled when pressed by
reporters on particular issues, often insisting that he would "get back" at some later, undefined point.

California does need more decisive political leadership. We have many germinal problems ready to sprout into crises. But so far Simon is acting more like a Gray Davis clone than a ready-for-prime-time governor.

Mike Daley sends this one along as evidence of the GOP blowing an opportunity in CA. I'd beg to differ. First, Simon never had a realistic shot in CA--it's a Democrat state at this point, no matter how badly Gray Davis has run it.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 23, 2002 6:26 PM