8/26: At Least I'm Not Driving

I'm driving to Santa Barbara today to visit Transition House -- an organization that helps house and care for homeless families with children -- and then do a fundraiser tonight. On the way I'm finalizing my speech for tomorrow ... don't worry, Parker Blackman, my magnificent Press Secretary, is driving!

Here is a sneak preview of the speech:

"Nothing will change in Sacramento if the people aren't galvanized, motivated, and mobilized.  That's been the history in this country.  It's been the people - not elected officials - who have been in the forefront of the great social changes of the last century. 

It wasn't elected officials who led the struggle for civil rights or the drive for women's rights or the fight to end the war in Vietnam.  It was the people.  And without the outrage of at least a critical mass of the people we'll never be able to take our government back. 

In the next few minutes, I could offer up an amazing array of programs designed to balance the budget, improve our schools, further racial and economic justice, and protect the environment  -- and, by the way, I plan to -- but unless I can arouse and animate the electorate, and convince them to keep the pressure on the Legislature, the partisan gridlock that we see in Sacramento will continue.  

The time has come for a people's uprising - a bottom up rescue of the state of California.  Traditional politicians are not going to save us.  We have to save ourselves.

And to do that we're going to need an independent leader in Sacramento who is dedicated to fairness and justice, and who will put workers and families at the top of her agenda. 

That's precisely the kind of independent leadership I intend to provide.

So what is independent leadership?  Well, first off, let me tell you what it's not: 

Independent leadership isn't kowtowing to big buck donors like Cruz Bustamante did when he released his budget plan last week.  He called for "Tough Love" for everyone in California except the prison guards' union and Indian gaming interests - not coincidentally, two of his biggest campaign contributors. 

Expecting independent leadership from a bought-and-paid-for career politician like Bustamante is like expecting a dyed-in-the-wool, tax-obsessed Bush Republican like Schwarzenegger to actually "clean house" in Sacramento. 

That's another thing independent leadership isn't:  claiming to be an outsider while filling your campaign staff with a Who's Who of GOP insiders, including Pete Wilson, George Shultz, and Mike Boskin, an economic advisor to President Bush.

I mean, is there really anybody out there who, after surveying the economic landscape of California, can seriously say:  Yep, what this state needs is some more Bush-onomics.  It's worked so well nationally; we just need to get some more of that here? 

Okay, enough about what independent leadership isn't.  Here's what it is ..."

But to hear what it is, come to the Commonwealth Club tomorrow!