Clinton crisis renews Brown buzz
With doubts swirling around the Democrats’ leading candidates for president, speculation has returned that Gov. Jerry Brown could enter the race. Even some analysts skeptical than he will jump in have suggested that, under the circumstances, he nonetheless should do so.
Second thoughts
Brown himself has teased reporters over the course of the year with remarks that slammed the door shut only to creak it open again. This March, on Meet the Press, he admitted he would join race if he were 10 years younger. “If I could go back in a time machine and be 66, I might jump in. But that’s a counterfactual, so you don’t need to speculate on that,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Now, in the minds of analysts, his own state of mind has become a secondary consideration. More important: the surprisingly fluid nature of the Democratic race.
While observers have thrilled to the chaos inflicted on Republican candidates by the rise of insurgents Donald Trump and Ben Carson, the story with the biggest political implications this summer has concerned Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Despite a superficially significant lead, her persistent challenges on authenticity and trustworthiness — fueled by a classified email scandal set to drag on for months — have raised fears that a party elder will have to ride in to the rescue.
Building the case
That’s where Brown has come in. Neither Bernie Sanders nor Martin O’Malley, Clinton’s main rivals, have gained the confidence of party elites. The political vacuum opened up wide enough to encourage Vice President Joe Biden to consider declaring his candidacy. But his slow deliberation opened a window of its own for Brown, according to supportive analysts.
Last month, former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told Fox News he “wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Bloomberg, Jerry Brown or Elizabeth Warren jump in the race if it looks like Hillary Clinton will implode,” Real Clear Politics noted. “If Hillary starts to implode you will see a vacuum that you have not seen in many, many years,” he warned.
For old-school liberals sensing a 21st century moment, Brown led that pack. “He comes across as something fresh and original,” wrote Michael Kinsley in Vanity Fair. “All that New Age stuff that seemed so weird when Brown ran for president the first time (in 1976) is still part of his repertoire. But he’d be helped if he ran by the extent to which yoga and brown rice and so on have become part of American culture. Jerry Brown hasn’t gone mainstream (or at least not much), but mainstream has gone Jerry Brown.”
Less partisan observers have focused on the appeal to Democrats of his record in office. “Brown is quite popular in the state — 52 percent approval to 27 percent disapproval in a May Public Policy Institute of California survey — and has overseen an economic recovery in the state that many people thought was impossible when he took over the office in 2011,” noted the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza.
A newsy narrative
But Brown’s popularity, as Cillizza also suggested, hasn’t diluted the longtime Clinton critic’s outsider sensibility. The prospect of Brown mounting a renewed challenge to the Clintons’ control of the party would certainly make news. Brown notoriously pushed his combative 1992 presidential candidacy all the way to the party convention, delivering a speech of his own while the party finally formalized its nomination of Bill Clinton.
Now, according to former Clinton administration official Lara Brown (no relation), Gov. Brown’s “more than two-decade long reputation of being the ‘anti-Clinton’ would “endear him to Sanders’ supporters, but would also place him in good stead were the party needing to wash its hands of all things Clinton in the wake of an indictment.”
23 comments
Write a commentWrite a Comment
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Related Articles
Boxer’s departure draws CA contenders
Sen. Barbara Boxer’s announcement last week she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2016 provided ambitious California Democrats a rare new opening for
Senator under FBI investigation traveled to Cuba with lobbyist
State Senator Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, whose offices were raided by FBI agents in June, traveled to Cuba during the legislature’s
Voters face pension-reform decisions
In a series of contests playing out at the state and local levels, Golden State voters will cast votes this November
Oh gawreshers the diffrence between the lesser of two evils like the diffrerence between Jaffar and the Evil Queen Moonbeam Brown and Hillary the Hag
I hope won’t be referring to her as a hag once she takes the oath as the next President of the United States. We should respect the person we elect to the highest office in our land.
I call her Billary, and will when she loses the nomination to Sanders.
I call you “Sillyery” !
You go Moonbeam! I would love to see you get your backside kicked again.
LOL
Maybe we can get Scotty Walker to run here— I thinik he’s free once he pays back the Koch boys….lmao
what has happened to the GOP??? sad
You little troll man, does your nonsense never end?
BTW how is your girl Billary doing these days?
The pundits are scraping the bottom of the barrel for material. The Governor is mindful of the job he has to complete for the people of CA and he knows how we would respond if he left us again to pursue the presidency. He has been the best Governor CA has ever had, with the exception of his father. He loves the moniker, “Moonbeam”. The man that gave him that moniker, former columnist in Chicago whose name I can’t recall at the moment, later apologized.
Sawhorse, where you been?
Living high off the hog in Colliefornia no doubt, while poor Desmond works his fingers to the bone to support you.
You will work that poor lad into an early grave.
Moonbeam is the second worst governor after Gray Davis. Pete Wilson and Ronald Reagan share the honors as our best governors.
Actually, Dude, Moonie is the both the first and second worst governors in California history. His first two terms in the 70-80’s were a total disaster for the state where much of the problems resulting in our current situation were born.
He began his terms with a first class highway system, an amazing water system of dams and canals that brought wealth and prosperity to the state. He destroyed a nearly free university and college K-12 system that produced some of the finest doctors, scientists and engineers we needed for a booming state.
Now he’s back to finish off the destruction he started during his first term. He is the destroyer of worlds and richly deserves the title of second worst governor for his current term. Crumbling infrastructure was his legacy then and total destruction of the state will be his legacy now.
I’d love to see this old hippie run for president. It would be an eye opener for residents of this state (The State of Insanity) to see the level of disdain and scorn the sane folks in the rest of the country hold regarding this crackpot.
They were moderates and did some good and some bad. Reagan ushered in the first public sector unions in CA–good; He also turned the mentally ill out of the hospitals so they have had to wander the streets as the mentally ill homeless ever since–bad.
Pete Wilson took CalPERS money and had to be stopped by special legislation–bad. I can’t think about anything good he did.
Governor Brown and Governor David are both above Willson and Reagan.
Sorry, but you don’t own your own facts.
I thought you had Hiram Johnson at #1, given you were in your prime when he was gov 🙂
Watch your back Snowhite the evil queens is back
You’re kidding, right?
The CWD Graboids are boring…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well said U haul!
But
I agree with almost everything u say….
Thks Teddy,
This new gang of Graboids are pretty nasty…..imagine eating street tacos, Top Ramen and drinking Pabtz Blue Ribbon for six years earning that coveted Communications degree and racking up 60 thousand dollars in student debt and regrets about self worth…..at age 28…..box boy at Haggens or Fresh and Easy!
Well said Pack n Ship– or imagine the Poodle dreaming of a JC to be built in Adelanto where she could get the general ed requirements in? Maybe she has a shot at cosmology school?
Jeez, How disgusting. Enough drooling and lip smacking.
You two really do need to get a room where you can pack & ship.
In psychological terms Ricky we would say that you’re merely “projecting” here…..
In purely psychological terms I’d say your comment is nonsense.
However in the field of psychoanalysis I’m certain you are widely known by many doctors in the field. A epic, textbook case of insanity, multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, together with delusions of grandeur.
( i.e totally bat sh*t crazy.)
Sounds like you’re getting frustrated again little buddy? Take a breath—- relax……..