In retrospect, I blame California Democrats for the recall disaster. I think that they thought what I thought initially, which is that the recall was a Republican power grab. I mean, Darrell Issa (a particularly annoying Republican) funded the whole thing out of his own pocket. They fought the recall on that ground, saying that people ought to fight the recall because it was anti-democratic. All the big Democrats stayed out of the race and in fact tried to prop up Gray Davis. The truth, though, was that Davis was recalled because he’s despised by most people in California. This really clicked for me about a week ago. When the petition for recall was completed, I was vehemently against the recall, but a few days ago I can honestly say I really didn’t care whether Davis was recalled, because in the few times I had seen him on TV he had annoyed me so much that I couldn’t really support him. It seems like Democrats should have better understood the effect that Davis has on people, accepted that the recall really was about people hating Davis and not Republicans thwarting Democracy, and put up a real candidate in the recall election.