HE'S BACK:

A Schwarzenegger landslide? Angelides is running out of time (Dan Walters, 9/19/06, Sacramento Bee)

Earlier in the summer, after Phil Angelides had won the Democratic nomination for governor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political advisers publicly declared that it would be a close, hard-fought battle for a second term.

Privately, however, those professional campaign strategists considered it possible, if they did their jobs well and the intangible factors broke Schwarzenegger's way, to run up a double-digit victory over Angelides.

With seven weeks -- just 49 days -- remaining before the Nov. 7 election, the possibility of a landslide Schwarzenegger victory is growing stronger. Given what's happened, and not happened, in the 3 1/2 months since the June primary, it now appears that there's nothing that Angelides can do to win.

The Governor isn't likely to chip in, but it would be helpful for John McCain and Rudy Giuliani to spend some time in state and for the national party to use its turnout operation so that the landslide will help other GOP candidates there.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2006 12:56 PM