I’ve lived in SF for 40+ years, and I sure cringed when he said that. Actually, I’m not sure I was aware when he first said it, but I sure cringed when I saw it in the Prop 8 commercials. I was so chagrined I googled it to see if it was true.
It’s probably pointless to debate whether that remark contributed enough to anti-SSM sentiment to make a difference in Prop 8’s passing. It’s going to be a matter of opinion on either side. So I’ll just add my opinion, for what it’s worth: he did a good thing, but (as usual at least at the time) he didn’t know when to keep his damn mouth shut.
Sorry to be taking this position between these two posters, but in this one instance, I think Miller is pushing his point too hard.
A lot of Californians and some national backers on his general political spectrum. Remember he’s been building a pretty standard presidential resume (city supervisor for multiple terms>twice elected big super-liberal city mayor>twice elected lieutenant governor>easily elected governor of most populous state), he’s telegenic enough, he’s smart enough and he seems more than ambitious enough. His politics are progressive-moderate - maybe a half-inch or more left of Kamala Harris, a couple inches more pragmatic than Bernie Sanders. On paper he looks like a good candidate to a lot of people.
I myself don’t think he is terribly viable as a national candidate because of the California-progressive taint and his own personal flaws and/or careless missteps (cheater! hypocrite!) open him up to some self-inflicted negative campaign adds. But then this is an odd time politically, so maybe I should toss conventional wisdom out the window. Like I said above, I’m not crazy about him but I bet I’d like him as a president just fine.
ETA: I’ll add that Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate in 2024 probably destroys his timing. I think she de facto preempts any other CA candidate from challenging her.
Thanks for telling me more than I’ve been able to glean from national coverage. A bit left of Kamala Harris and more pragmatic than Sanders would be fine with me. Hell, a lot left of Harris would be fine (that wasn’t a complaint though).
There are two states whose governors are pretty much always on the radar as potential presidential candidates – California and Texas. What they both have in common is that they’re each dominated by a party (for all the talk of Texas purpling, Republicans still hold every major office), have enormous fundraising potential, lots of media markets, etc. There hasn’t been a governor in either state for the last 30 years that hasn’t looked in the mirror one morning and seen a President looking back at him.
I also remember that Prop 8 appeared on the same ballot as Obama’s first victory, so it brought out a lot of voters who were very supportive of him, but whose demographic was more-or-less anti-gay, so they voted for him, and also for Prop 8. I am not sure if that is true or not but that is my memory.
That’s what I remember; specifically, Black and Hispanic voters were less supportive of same sex marriage than white voters. Even Obama, at the time, still hadn’t openly expressed support for it. (His opinion was “evolving”)
That’s my recollection as well.
For some numbers:
Prop 8
Yes: 7,001,084
No: 6,401,482
President:
Obama: 8,274,472
McCain+everybody else on the ballot: 5,287,427
So at the very minimum, over 1.7 million (20%) Obama voters also supported Prop 8. Most likely a much higher number.
I suppose it is possible that almost 2 million people were single issue votes and only voted to ban same-sex marriage and nothing else, but with ~13 million votes in each race, it doesn’t seem likely.
I’ll never forget the prop 8 vote. Obama had won 3 hours before and it was still over 52% for banning SSM.
That was a sign of idiocy. I moved here to CA in 1999. Never would’ve thought it’d be less than 15% voting against it. But I was wrong about that one and Hillary, and Trumpy actually being a nominee, etc.
I love how Mr. Kiley, who is one of the leaders of the recall effort, was OK with rule-bending when it suited his agenda - the signature drive was extended due to the pandemic, which enabled the recall to gather more/enuf signatures. Now that the opposition is biting back all of a sudden “it’s so unfair!”. Boo-effing-hoo!
even the worshippers at the altar of trump that is my family are conceding not is he only going to beat the recall hes probably going to get reelected in the general election
The whole recall movement started a couple of years ago when California raised the cost of vehicle registrations to help off-set the cost of road maintenance. That triggered all the loons and started the petitions, but it never got much traction until Covid. Then the nut-balls had another reason to push for recall.
It’s going to be a complete disaster for them. Nobody of any import thinks the recall has a snowballs chance of succeeding, so what passes for Republican heavy hitters in the state are all sitting this one out.