Wednesday, August 21, 2002

posted 8/21/2002 03:26:00 PM by Daniel   0 comments

One more straw in the wind indicating that Davis is heading for re-election victory: According to this Sacramento Bee story, Davis has finally started getting inquiries about whether he'd be a Presidential candidate in 2004.

"I have no plans to run," he said. "I'm not doing anything like it." He strengthened his comments later, when asked whether he or Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a fellow Democrat who could not attend the conference because of a family illness, would make a stronger presidential candidate. "Well, he's running in 2004, and I'm not," Davis said.

Two months ago I raised the question of why Davis wasn't being hounded over this issue, the same way Pete Wilson was in 1994. The obvious explanation was that Davis' re-election prospects were so dicey that no one could seriously contemplate him making a Presidential run. These days his re-election prospects seem to be firming up rapidly.

If Gray Davis does indeed succeed in defeating a potted plant Bill Simon, and if in addition he wins by a landslide (a not-improbable scenario), then Davis will have the same opportunity as Wilson to repudiate his promise not to run for President.

Given Davis' monumental ego and ambition, I wouldn't put it past him.