So California had its recall vote and Gray Davis is out, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in.

I was a bit leery of this turn of events but I assume he won't do too much damage.  He isn't actually an idiot, he's a little stiff, but whatever.  

Gray Davis was bum-rushed out of office thanks to the rolling blackouts and a $38 billion deficit.  As huge as that is, to his credit his administration managed to fix their budget before the recall.  And that's a big budget.  The state of California alone is the world's 5th largest economy and has a population a few million larger than Canada.  
I don't know, I guess Gray Davis was doomed to be out next election anyway so it hardly matters, but I think the public were extra tough on him.  It's possible he's incompetent, but it's also possible that it's hard to run California.   Whatch you talkin' bout California?  Probably Arnold.  But I don't mind cause the world don't move to the beat of just one drum.


Gray Davis was an experienced politician who actually has some background in Government and he bungled the job.  Can Arnold handle it?  Ahh, probably.  Of course its reasonable to be concerned that Arnold has absolutely no experience and no idea what he's doing.  But as near as I can tell running a successful government is mostly luck.

Anyway, the California recall election was some top notch democracy comedy.  There were 135 candidates including celebrities, porn stars, Larry Flynt, and then some weirdo's.   The list of candidates included a circus roster of fringe wacko's and sideshows.  Here's a rundown of a few of the best and the percentage of the votes they got.

Gary Coleman.  A child star of Diff'rent Strokes.  Escaped the shadowy fates of former costars who had unpleasant run ins with matchbooks or narcotics.  Gary fell out of the limelight from the years 1985-2002.  Had slightly funny campaign slogans like "California is short, on time" or "Gary Coleman - Candidate for the little man."  But bad jokes weren't enough to win this election.  0%.

Mary Carey.  Real name Mary Cook, a porn star.  Here's a quote, "All the positive media attention I've been getting, that the Bush administration would realize one important fact...that America loves its porn stars."  0%.

Larry Flynt.  Publisher of Hustler, tireless advocate for all the perverted arts under the guise of freedom of speech.  A generally wacky scumbag who survived being shot, a lot like Tupac that one time and 50 cent the last 9 times.  Self made man, patriot, scourge of the despot, creep.  0%.

Anyway, the election is over and the real world must now resume turning.

I don't think there is much to learn from this election.  It's not like its the first time a movie star became a political leader.  I have said before that I think its amusing that a country with as many bright people as the U.S. chooses to take its guidance from its entertainment industry.  I think this is all part of the phenomenon of groups and popularity.

As far as I can tell groups are usually governed by popularity.  It's democracy.  The most popular people are the ones people listen to and they tend to become the leaders.  But there's a catch.  It seems people often become popular because of charisma, and not so often because of expertise. 

Maybe leaders don't actually need to be experts, but I for one think they better not be idiots.  The teaming up of charisma and terrible ideas were the ingredients for history's greatest disasters, like Napolean, Hitler, Lenin, Reagan, Bruckheimer.

Those are of course slightly extreme examples.  But my point is this.  Charisma is not in and of itself any sign of credibility.  We may want to trust the good looking confident Gary Coleman, but could he handle the responsibility?

It could easily have been the greatest nightmare in the history of civilization.

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