Endorsement: Jerry Brown for CA governor
One of the most common motifs in California’s 2010 gubernatorial race is that the state is at a critical juncture. Unemployment, healthcare costs, taxes, crime rates and pollution are rising. Pensions, water supply, government services and job opportunities are not.
It’s imperative that we keep these issues in mind as we select the next California governor. The leader best suited to the current state of affairs will be one who is pragmatic, experienced and knows the system well enough to triage California’s problems and act accordingly.
Once these qualities are identified, the choice of California’s next governor is clear.
Jerry Brown’s 40 years of experience, several of them in the governor’s chair, give him an edge that Meg Whitman’s time running eBay does not afford her. Brown also has the advantage of a favorable relationship with California’s labor unions and what he describes as a “long and well-deserved reputation for being cheap,” both of which the next governor will need to pull the state out of its escalating debt.
Experience is not everything, however, and it is dangerously nearsighted to assume that a candidate possesses all the necessary criteria to govern successfully just because he has served in office before.
But Brown’s seasoned outlook and experience in office does not preclude him from being progressive; his early support for AB 32, California’s groundbreaking legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, shows that he is quick to identify the most pressing issues emerging in today’s political climate, as does his clean energy jobs plan.
It bears repeating that running a state, especially one in California’s position, is not the same as running a business. Though Whitman touts her fresh perspective, radical thinking and sharp business sense, in the end, California needs wealth of knowledge more than it needs knowledge of wealth.
For that, the Daily Trojan endorses Jerry Brown as the most appropriate choice for governor.
You are all obviously too young to remember the first time Mr. Brown was governor of the formerly great state of California. That record alone makes him unfit.
Editors:
You’ve written a article to endorse a candidate, but you have given no concrete evidence as to why he is a better choice for California. You stated that “The leader best suited to the current state of affairs will be one who is pragmatic, experienced and knows the system well enough to triage California’s problems and act accordingly.” But, what exactly is Brown’s “pragmatic” approach to fix California’s economy, immigration, education, and other social and civil problems? How is Brown going to apply his 40 years of “experience” to solve these problems?
Jerry Brown may have been in politics for 40 years, but it’s unclear whether those years of experience are even applicable for California today. Can you explain what are those “experiences”? And how is he going to apply those “experiences” to solve the problems?
BTW, USC may have gone up in the rankings and I have no doubts that ‘SC has many bright students and scholars. However, the quality of most of the articles published on Daily Trojan do not reflect the intelligence of the current ‘SC student body. Article such as this one and many others I’ve read on DT make me wonder whether USC should require all its undergraduate students to take at least one critical thinking course.
Liberal USC – thanks for your wise insights; keep up the good work and fight on!
What happened to USC that we’re now endorsing candidates that are antithetical to everything that has made this university great? How DARE YOU divide the Trojan Family by posting an official endorsement of a candidate! Let alone one who favors furthering the leftist policies that are slowly corroding and choking this great nation.
Today, for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my university.
Who cares about Governor, why won’t the DT take a stand on the issue that is really matter in this election? If Prop 24 doesn’t pass, it won’t matter who the Governor is because the legislature still won’t be able to pass a budget. If Prop 19 passes, the liberty of CA’s population will increase exponentially, eliminating a major part of the police-state that we are living in today. If Prop 23 passes, we can say hello to a flood of Texas oil interests and say goodbye to the green jobs that are currently in development–and really, who can’t wait until Long Beach has its own version of Deepwater Horizon!
The Propositions are far more important than any gubernatorial or even senatorial race, and I hope that the DT concentrates on them in the upcoming days.
YES ON 19!
Oh, brother. Kids will be kids.
Note to self: Upon relocating my business outside of California due to punitive high taxes, overregulation, and a spendthrift state government bureaucracy, never hire recent USC graduates.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Enjoy the graduates of ASU, I’ve heard that only 70% of their students have below a 2.0 now!
Amen brother! Obviously this young man was not old enough to remember Jerry’s first term. For a university that is trying to move up in the ranks as a premier learning institution these students don’t seem to learn. We obviously need more history classes (unbiased). As another writer stated, when did USC get so liberal?
When it changed from a commuter school catering to rich OC kids into a nationally-respected institution of higher learning that attracts some of the brightest minds in the world.
Are you saying the brightest minds in the world are only Liberal? Because if they are, I hope they do better than the brightest minds running are country today.
I never said that the brightest minds are only liberal. I’m currently a student here and I have great friends, both liberal and conservative, and all of them are extremely intelligent. What I’m saying is that as the university becomes more respected nation-wide, it begins attracting students of all types, rather than just attracting the types of people who would grow up to be major players in Watergate and unquestioningly support Ronald Reagan.
I’m really tired of hearing alums talk about how the campus is changing and how the liberal students aren’t representative of what SC “really is.” Statements like “when did USC get so liberal” irk me because alums love to talk about how much better USC is academically now than when they attended in the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc., but never give credit to the fact that what is making this university so great now is the diversity of race, geography, nationality, and political orientation that now exists on campus.
What I’m trying to say is, don’t praise USC out of one side of your mouth for becoming such a great school and then disparage it with the other side because “the students today are so liberal, this isn’t the USC I loved!” Understand that if one thing happens along with another thing (USC rising academically and USC welcoming a more diverse student body), there’s a correlation there.
I will remember this idiotic endorsement the next time I receive a contribution request from USC.
Good to know that your support of this institution is based on the decision of a board of editors that has no affiliation to the USC administration. Classy.
“But Brown’s seasoned outlook and experience in office does not preclude him from being progressive; his early support for AB 32, California’s groundbreaking legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, shows that he is quick to identify the most pressing issues”
Oh yes, he’s got his pulse on EXACTLY the most pressing issues. Everywhere I go these days, I see starving Californians on street corners holding up crudely-made signs that say “MORE DEBT AND PORK FOR GREEN ENERGY SCAMS, PLEASE!” It’s not like there’s anything more important for us to spend our grandchildren’s money on.
“Jerry Brown’s 40 years of experience, several of them in the governor’s chair, give him an edge that Meg Whitman’s time running eBay does not afford her.” I seem to recall this argument being suspiciously absent when Barack Obama was running for President. And speaking of AB32, do you have ANY idea what it will do to California’s #1 industry (Mfg)? I’m sure the fiscally conservative trustees are very pleased that after all of their hard work to maintain the University’s endowment through the current financial crisis, their own newspaper stabs them in the back and supports Mr. CA Social Welfare himself.
UCLA called: it wants it’s student body back!
You “editors” have been indoctrinated throughout your school and college years with curriculum and teachers pushing a Leftist agenda; and you come through with a ringing endorsement of the left-leaning statist. Big surprise.
Your best argument is we need a wealth of knowledge more than a knowledge of wealth? No, kids. We need someone who’s unafraid to take on the public sector unions so that this state can produce wealth again.
I wonder who you’ll endorse for U.S. Senate. *rolleyes*
Can you do me a favor and call me Edititor please? It’s just that I worked SO hard for that title…