California high speed rail

[ndbprr]

The opponent to Jerry Brown cleaned his clock in a debate this week. Among his winning points was blasting an increase in the gas tax to fund what he called "the crazy train". Apparently it resonated with voters there.

[Phoebe Vet]

Until the election, how do you keep score in a debate?  Both sides always claim victory.  I am just wondering how you determined that someone's clock was cleaned.

[schlimm]

http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_26481693/herhold-how-score-california-gubernatorial-debate

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2014/09/05/brown-slammed-over-tesla-in-california-debate

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-brown-kashkari-20140906-story.html

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/04/6680229/neel-kashkari-opens-debate-with.html

Of course, a right wing blog thought Brown's opponent did so well, but as you can see, the others regarded it as at the most a narrow win for Kashkari. Brown countered Kashkari's "crazy train" remark by quipping, “I think he’s more familiar with the gravy train,” taking the opportunity to criticize Kashkari for his role running the federal government bank bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

[Note: Brown now has an 18 point lead in post-debate polling.]

[Murphy Siding]

    Other than providing useless soundbites for future political ads and allowing one side to say they *won* the debate,  I don't see much use in debates in our modern voting system.  They are not even debates.  They are nothing more than 2 (or more) candidates repeating their talking points.

[schlimm]

Murphy Siding

    Other than providing useless soundbites for future political ads and allowing one side to say they *won* the debate,  I don't see much use in debates in our modern voting system.  They are not even debates.  They are nothing more than 2 (or more) candidates repeating their talking points.

Totally agree, the debates are just talking points and sound bytes.

[DwightBranch]

It resonated with HOW MANY voters there?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/governor/ca/california_governor_kashkari_vs_brown-5080.html

Brown is up by an average of 19% as of today, even Rasmussen the Republican polling outfit has him up by 19%, CBS has him up by 24%, which is incredible.

I have taught polling at the university-level recently. Brown beat Billionaire Meg Whitman by 12%, and this guy doesn't have nearly the funding. In my opinion, you will not see another Republican Governor, or Republican presidential candidate, win in California again in any of our lifetimes unless the Republicans drastically change in terms of demographic appeal. And so HSR is on track to be completed.

[doug u]

There was a vote for HSR and it did pass. There are people who are against it, in one community they wants a tunnel to reduce the noise. I guess the airlines are also against it. Like the ferry boats were against placing a bay bridge and the golden gate bridge. With large projects like this you will never get 100 % cooperation from everyone everywhere along rail route. We also need some new refineries to produce more gas but there will be some that will say "not in my backyard".