Opinion: In today’s pages: Elections extravaganza
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Oxford University professor Timothy Garton Ash sits back with a bowl of popcorn and enjoys the blockbuster campaign season, while Rosa Brooks rides the national mood swing toward idealism. Election law professor Richard L. Hasen weighs in on the ballot bubble trouble that decline-to-state voters faced, and cartoonist Lisa Benson looks over the one big fish Tsunami Tuesday left behind. If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaves Los Angeles for Hillary Clinton, Patt Morrison nominates Rudy Giuliani for top dog:
What would Rudy bring to L.A.?He’s deliciously mean. Maybe Villaraigosa can deliver the political shiv with the best of them, but even when Giuliani smiles, he scares me. In L.A., where traffic flow is the yardstick of a leader’s success, Giuliani will make us behave. If the sign says, ‘No parking 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.,’ the Scourge of Squeegee Men, the Avenging Angel of Times Square will tow your illegally parked car and ticket your butt. Not just here and there, not just now and then, but all over town, and every day.
The editorial board settles in for an extended, exciting campaign, and calls out Proposition S proponents on their methods. Finally, the board snarks at Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata for failing to pass term-limits reform:
Voters don’t like to be played for fools.... If you hadn’t been so blatantly self-serving and hadn’t given voters such good reasons to be angry with you, term-limits reform would have passed. The next generation of California lawmakers would have had more clout to say ‘no’ to lobbyists and a long enough view to hammer out fixes for our chronic budget, healthcare, water resources, education and other problems.Instead, California is left with the same broken system it has had for 18 years. As for you, you’re termed out. Bye, now. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Readers share their post election buzz. Mark Donnelly writes, ‘Looks as if The Times’ starry-eyed push for Obama had exactly the effect on California’s voters I thought it would: none.’
Ouch.