Bill Whalen

Palo Alto

Its stated purpose may be higher education, but for the storied University of California system recent times have brought with them the lowest of lows.

As if he doesn’t have enough problems – double-digit unemployment, health care reform on life support, and his party’s pesky habit of losing blue-state elections – President Obama may be taking his biggest headache yet.

LAST JUNE, CALIFORNIA was abuzz over Tesla -- the car, not the inventor. That Arnold Schwarzenegger could convince the makers of the high-end, electric vehicle to relocate from Bill Richardson's New Mexico to the Golden State was hailed as skilled strong-arming by the strongman-turned-governator.

THERE MAY BE NO SECOND acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once suggested, but that doesn't keep us from second-guessing politics, politicians and the art of campaigning.

IF YOU'RE ONE of those parents who worries about what effects standardized testing will have on your teen's self esteem, fear not: The University of California is poised to rush to Generation Y's emotional rescue.

IN THE LONG VOYAGE that is the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the media have adopted a new approach: women and children first.

LIKE CHARLIE BROWN trying to kick a pigskin but always ending up supine, there's a foolish consistency to California's dream of a grander role in the presidential selection process.

STAR BILLING it's not: it's page 102 of the December edition of Men's Journal magazine, to be exact, where Arnold Schwarzenegger expounds on life and politics. California's governor admits that he's gained a girlymanish eight pounds since moving to Sacramento three years ago. Otherwise, the…

IF A DEMOCRATIC TSUNAMI emerges on Election Day, then it's reasonable to expect California to surf the wave. After all, it's the big blue nation-state that George W. Bush has twice lost by more than 1.2 million votes. Since 1998, with the exception of the 2003 special election, Democrats have won…

WHILE THE REST of the nation lurches ahead to Election Day, California remains stuck in a time warp.

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, the California ballot is a special place. Not only does it let citizens exercise their right to vote, but for the left it's a chance to exorcise some serious demons.

YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO rich or too thin, the saying goes, and it certainly holds true for California's June 6 primary. State Controller Steve Westly, a former eBay executive and Democratic candidate for governor, has spent $34.5 million of his own fortune in hopes of earning the right to face Gov.…

FOR ALL OF ITS QUIRKS, California is no different from other states in that policy debates unfold neatly along liberal and conservative creases. Except when it comes to the death penalty. It's the rare California issue on which a majority of Republicans and Democrats historically have agreed. A…

TWENTY-FIVE MONTHS AGO, Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated his recall win at Los Angeles' Century Park Hotel--dubbed the "Reagan Hotel" for its past Republican victory-night parties. So, naturally, Schwarzenegger returned to the same ballroom to celebrate the end of California's special election.…

ON THE BIG SCREEN, Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest brush with Shakespeare was playing a gun-toting, not-so-sweet prince in Last Action Hero ("something is rotten in Denmark--and Hamlet is taking out the trash"). But with Californians set to decide his reform agenda in Tuesday' special election,…

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT the political winds may be shifting--back in California's favor. For years the Golden State was said to be the nation's political vanguard, but in the last decade or so it has been anything but cutting-edge. California hasn't been in play in a presidential contest since 1988.…

LATE LAST MONTH, and with little fanfare other than a brief mention in a press release, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law making it a $250 fine to pierce the body of someone under the age of 18 without parental or guardian consent. It was a law which had expired the previous January;…

ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2001, the day after the deadliest attack ever perpetrated on American soil, job security--not homeland security--was foremost on the minds of California lawmakers. State senators in Sacramento that day passed a redistricting bill purposely designed to protect both parties'…

IT'S A BILLBOARD OF THE TIMES. Paid for by the California Nurses Association and posted along highways east and west of Sacramento, the billboards depict three images of Arnold Schwarzenegger--a full head shot, followed by a partial facial image, then finally just the man's hair and…

IF THERE IS A CONSTANT in Arnold Schwarzenegger's overlapping careers as film and political star, it would be his ability to choose the right foil to play the bad guy.

CALIFORNIA'S POLITICAL WINDS blow south these days. That's the direction of approval ratings (34 percent for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 27 percent for the state legislature, per the latest survey by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Research Institute). It's also where state Assembly…

IMAGINE THAT RIP VAN WINKLE was a Democrat--one waking up from an 18-year slumber.

THERE WAS A TIME when political winds flowed west to east across America. But this summer in California, the breeze blows the opposite way, with politicians here playing by East Coast rules.

TO UNDERSTAND the San Francisco Bay area one needs to appreciate its assorted love-hate relationships. That would include Barry Bonds (love the swing, hate the attitude), the landmark bridges (love the vistas, hate the tolls), and Silicon Valley (love the technology, hate the MBAs' self-absorption).

IN EARLY MAY, San Francisco was chosen as the headquarters city for California's new stem-cell research endeavor (officially: the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine). The winning bid included 10 years' worth of free office space across the street from SBC Park, home of the San Francisco…

HE SAYS he has no plans to run for governor of California, yet there was actor/activist Rob Reiner at an East Los Angeles children's center recently, looking every bit the candidate as he announced a new push to expand preschool enrollment in the Golden State. "We want to build an economy. We want…

FEAR NOT: this isn't another column about Hillary Clinton fashioning herself into a pragmatic, centrist force to be reckoned with in 2008, or how America always loves a good makeover--be it a toned-down junior senator from New York, a slimmed-down homemaker currently under house arrest, or a "big…

I HAVE A THEORY as to why the city of Irvine, deep in the heart of Orange County, was chosen as the California site for Iraqi expatriates participating in Sunday's election. And it doesn't have to do with the obvious swords-to-plowshares symbolism of the voting locale: a former Marine Corps air…

IN THE AFTERMATH of Arnold Schwarzenegger's second State of the State Address, delivered early Wednesday evening in Sacramento, this much is apparent: Though nearly 14 months into the job, California's Governator is no longer a political novice, but he is still a political novelty and must-see TV.…

A MONTH AFTER the presidential election, here's a sure sign that the party-out-of-power is off its game: the Democrats aren't crying foul over Cal-Berkeley's exclusion from the Rose Bowl.

A YEAR AGO TODAY, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as California's 38th governor. The rest, as they say, is show biz history.

WITH ALL ATTENTION focused on Florida and Ohio, it's tempting to pity California which, in this election at least, seems to have mattered most as the home of Jay Leno and The Tonight Show. Once again, the wealthy nation-state has lived up to its traditional role as the ATM of American politics. Not…

BACK FROM HIS ORATORICAL tour de force at the Republican National Convention, Arnold Schwarzenegger gets to devote the remainder of September to business as usual in Sacramento.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM has it that John Kerry's problems began with a convention that produced no bounce, followed by a Swift boat veterans offensive that tarnished the senator's warrior image.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM has it that Ohio is the eye of the storm of this presidential election. Just ask Howard Dean, who told a Cincinnati crowd last month: "Ohio is going to be the swing state. Ohio will be the Florida of 2004. We have to win here."

BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS in Sacramento usually don't heat up until the temperature climbs past the 100-degree mark. Not this year. Sacramento hit triple digits on July 5; the Golden State's budget is now three weeks past its July 1 due date.

TODAY MARKS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s untimely death. One wonders if, by now, he would have formally entered politics (a might-have-been that both Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton probably don't like to mull over).

SOMEWHERE in the deep dark recesses of Burbank, Jay Leno's writers rejoice. Having received the gift that keeps giving--Bill Clinton's tell-all, spin-all biography--they now have another present in the form of the Illinois U.S. Senate race, where Republican contender Jack Ryan is embroiled in a…

HIS ONE-YEAR "paper" anniversary isn't for another seven months, but yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger got a piece of paper he's long coveted. The Governator signed a workers' compensation reform bill that's as much a testament to his political skills as his promise to improve California's business…

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, which politically means it isn't pollen season but instead the pallid period between the primaries and the conventions. For scribes and pundits, that means open season for all sorts of crackpot thinking.

JUST AS LEAP DAY occurs once every four years, there's the quadrennial tradition of California having little--if any--say in the presidential nominating process.

Sacramento

IF ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER hasn't turned Sacramento into a circus, then why the big top on the north lawn of the State Capitol? The outdoor tent was erected to accommodate the media crush that accompanied last night's State of the State Address--there wasn't sufficient room inside the grand old…

COUNTING LAST TUESDAY'S get-together in New Hampshire, there have been eight Democratic presidential debates during the last three months. What a long, strange trip it's been, beginning in New Mexico on September 4. From there, the left-leaning field took the proverbial left turn at Albuquerque,…

BY MIDNIGHT West Coast time tonight, Arnold Schwarzenegger will have solved California's fiscal mess. Well, not solved it, exactly, but he is poised to deliver on the last of his big three recall promises. The Governator wants the legislature to sign off on a $15 billion deficit bond, which voters…

THIS IS "JFK WEEK" on The History Channel, which is not the only media outlet obsessed with the 40th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. On Thursday, ABC News has a two-hour special analyzing the circumstances of the crime--running it against CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."…

PRESIDENT BUSH has yet to set foot in San Francisco since taking office 33 months ago. Although he's visiting Southern California to inspect the wildfire devastation, the itinerary doesn't include a detour north. Which is unfortunate. San Franciscans go to the polls today to choose a new mayor, and…

IS CALIFORNIA READY for Dennis Miller as its next United States senator? Laugh if you like, but some Republican strategists (including a few who just sent a certain movie star to Sacramento) see Miller, the sardonic comedian whose late-night talk show lasted just a little longer than Wesley Clark's…

CALIFORNIA MAY or may not factor into President Bush's reelection strategy, but at least the White House knows the local history. The President and Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger met yesterday at Riverside's Mission Inn, which has hosted GOP presidents as far back as William McKinley. A…

FOR THE FIRST TIME in a long time, California isn't the crazy aunt of the western states: not as dysfunctional as last night's presidential debate in Arizona; nor as anxiety-ridden as those Oregon Democrats huddling this weekend to figure how to keep the state from acting Bush league in 2004. As…

HERE'S AN UNLIKELY recall winner: George Schwartzman. The San Diego businessman ran as an independent on Tuesday's ballot, wanting to ban cookies and soda pop from public school vending machines (child obesity is, ahem, a growing concern in California). What makes Schwartzman notable? He finished…

AND SO recall comes full circle. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his victory speech after being introduced by Jay Leno, on whose show Arnold announced his candidacy two months ago. All of that occurred at Los Angeles' Century Park Hotel--local Republicans call it the "Reagan Hotel," since it was…

IT'S VOTING TIME IN CALIFORNIA. While you wait for the results, some postcards from the edge of recall: Pay to Play to the End. Governor Gray Davis marked the final day of campaigning with a big rally in downtown San Francisco. He did the same event last November, at the end of his reelection…

THE NEWS out of New England is vandals have defaced Robert Frost's farmhouse in Derry, New Hampshire, spray-painting the south side of the poet's house--a national landmark--with swastikas and the slogans "Arnold is a racist" and "Arnold is a Nazi." That makes it official: recall has taken the road…

HERE'S WHERE RECALL STANDS, heading into the final weekend: * Arnold's on a bus and on the defensive over Gropergate ("I have sometimes behaved badly," he said yesterday. "I have been on rowdy movie sets and have done things I thought were playful but I have offended people. I am deeply sorry about…

THIS IS THE FACE of momentum and confidence (maybe too much so), six days before an election: Arnold Schwarzenegger, standing before a few hundred fans and advisors, a few hundred yards from the state Capitol, saying what he'll do in the first 100 days after he takes the oath of governor. Not if…

NEXT TUESDAY, I'm voting for Cruz Bustamante--on one condition: his sister has to be the headline act at his inaugural. That would be Nao Bustamante, a San Francisco-based "performance pioneer" whose creative spark could make even porn star/recall candidate Mary Carey blush. Here's how the…

WHAT IF TIGER WOODS, frustrated by his inability of late to win one of golf's majors, enrolled at UC-Berkeley to finish the degree he started years ago at Stanford? Tiger would have to identify himself by race, and that would land him in the rough. Woods calls himself a "Cablanasian" (Caucasian,…

ELECTIONS, like warfare, come down to turning points. And should Governor Gray Davis go down in flames a week from tomorrow, remember last Friday as the pivotal moment in California's recall election. The event was a West Hollywood rally for women voters. His guest of honor was former Texas…

TEN MORE DAYS, then recall mercifully comes to a vote. Here are some items to consider over the weekend, while the candidates hopscotch California. As Linda Richman would say, "talk amongst yourselves." (1) Jumping on the Bandwagon, or Life in the Slow Lane? State senator Tom McClintock won't quit…

A YEAR AGO, Stan Statham was California's answer to the Maytag repairman. As president of the California Broadcasters Association, he sat by in frustration while his planned gubernatorial debate in Sacramento failed to materialize (Governor Gray Davis, ahead in the polls, didn't want to risk a…

GO FIGURE. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals not only overturns last week's recall delay in less than 24 hours, but does so by unanimous consent--a slam dunk with a shattered backboard. Recall is now set for two Tuesdays from today, which means a record number of Californians will tune in to…

TO KNOW SACRAMENTO is to appreciate the chip on its shoulder. Nearly a decade ago, I moved to California's capital to write speeches for former Governor Pete Wilson. The best my colleagues could say about the place was that it's a quick drive to Lake Tahoe and wine country and a quick flight to Los…

FORGET THE SPEECHES, rallies, town hall meetings, and whatever other mischief the recall candidates have planned for today. There's only one place to be and that's in San Francisco, at the corner of 7th and Mission Streets, where the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments over whether to…

CALIFORNIA AND RECALL suffer from Isabel envy. While the East coast's hurricane follows a steady course, the big political storm out West remains stalled over the Golden State. It may reach land sometime today, when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to announce whether it will reconsider…

FOR GRAY DAVIS, old habits die hard. A day after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals postponed the October 7 recall, the California Association of Highway Patrolmen donated an estimated $50,000 to the governor. That was four days after the legislature approved a new contract--negotiated by the Davis…

FROM CALIFORNIA comes the cry: Order in the court--even as recall candidates try to stay on an orderly course. A day after three 9th Circuit justices put the kibosh on the October 7 election, the same federal appeals court gave California's secretary of state and other "interested parties"…

MONDAY'S BIG RECALL NEWS was supposed to be Arnold, Maria, Oprah and a not-so-private chat. That was before another trio grabbed the spotlight--a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered a postponement of the October 7 election because, in the judges'…

FOR A BRIEF PERIOD this weekend, Los Angeles supplanted New York as America's "fun city." On Saturday, the city played host to the California Republican party's fall convention and a Democratic anti-recall rally. The following morning, Bill Clinton took center stage at LA's First African Methodist…

JUST WHAT ARNOLD NEEDS: more national air time. On Monday, Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, will appear on the season premiere of the "Oprah Winfrey Show." It marks the couple's first joint interview during recall--this one, with an old friend (Maria and Oprah worked together in…

RECALL JUNKIES awoke Wednesday morning to this email from Howard Kaloogian, chairman of the Recall Gray Davis Committee: "I know you are all probably getting sick of hearing about this, but it is absolutely pertinent that we have the funding to match the 'No on Recall' campaign. Whether you can…

SAY GOODBYE to recall's principled Peter. That's Peter Ueberroth, the former baseball commissioner, who yesterday ended his issue-oriented (and mostly invisible) run for governor. "In the four weeks where we are and where we have to get, we just can't get there," Ueberroth said in a farewell news…

THE LATEST California Field Poll is out, and it shows that the more recall changes, the more it's unchanged: Governor Gray Davis remains headed for unemployment on October 7, and Democratic Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante is still the leading choice to replace him--followed by Arnold…

RECALL OFFERS two shades of Gray. On Saturday, at an anti-recall rally outside Los Angeles, the California governor reportedly told a supporter, "You shouldn't be governor unless you can pronounce the name of the state." The next day, Davis told reporters he was "kidding around in a private…

RECALL MAKES for strange bedfellows. Arnold Schwarzenegger has coupled onscreen with Sharon Stone. Arianna Huffington and Al Franken hit the sheets, John-and-Yoko-style, to report on the 1996 national conventions. Cruz Bustamante is in bed with the Indian gaming tribes that underwrite his campaign.…

INTERSTATE 5 is not the road to Damascus. But don't tell that to Gray Davis. He wants Californians to believe he's their St. Paul--a convert who shouldn't be recalled because he's seen the light. The biblical analogy is irresistible. Since he came to the realization that he was in the fight of his…

IS ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER the recall Hamlet? To be or not to be a more conventional candidate: that is the question. Barring a last-minute charge of heart, The Terminator won't be back in Walnut Creek for tonight's candidate forum (if you don't live in the San Francisco Bay area, you can catch it…

HERE'S ONE REASON why you won't see much of John McCain in California over the next month: If your name was synonymous with campaign finance reform, the recall is the last place you'd want to be. Why? Because the October 7 special election exposes California's new-and-improved donor law for what it…

NO ONE WILL CONFUSE the diminutive, bald, and pudgy Cruz Bustamante with Ashton Kutcher (Cosmo Spacely, George Jetson's employer, is a better likeness). But if California's lieutenant governor loses next month's recall vote, it may be because his candidacy reminded too many viewers of "That 70's…

WHICH DESERVES MORE ATTENTION: Arnold Schwarzenegger talking issues, or a 26-year-old issue of a "gentleman's" magazine in which the former Mr. Universe boasts how he-men and hedonism go hand in hand? Watch for the public and press to struggle with this--and other controversies from Arnold's…

CIRCLE TWO DATES on your recall calendar: September 3 and September 17. The first is a candidates' forum in Walnut Creek; the second, a candidates' debate in Sacramento. For California voters, it's their best chance at seeing the recall field up-close and personally. That is, if Arnold…

THE RECALL defies both tradition and traditional math. Recent history shows that Republicans can't win statewide races in California. But thanks to recall, they have a shot on October 7. Every poll shows the GOP with the most support on the second half of the recall, yet the front-runner is a…

JUST WHEN WE were starting to have fun in dysfunctional California, Fox News has declared a moratorium on Arnold Schwarzenegger movie puns. No more "Terminator," "Total Recall," or "Running Man" references from now to October 7, the cable network has mandated. In the contest to recall Gray Davis,…

IRONICALLY, Bill Simon's best day as a recall candidate was his last. Unable to raise money, generate support from his party's power players, or earn attention amidst the media circus that is Arnoldmania, Simon found a novel way to get noticed: drop out. "There are too many Republicans in this race…

CALIFORNIA'S RECALL is Jimmy Durante's complaint: Everybody wants to get into the act. The bar at Washington, D.C.'s Ritz-Carlton now serves a "Total Recall" cocktail. The hotel calls it a "a bipartisan drink made with conservative ingredients and a liberal pour" (three parts vodka, two parts…

THE TERMINATOR broke his silence Wednesday, holding a press conference in Los Angeles to talk fiscal fitness and introduce his California Economic Recovery Council advisory team. As far as opening nights go, there were no signs of jitters or stage fright. The candidate was sharp, had command of his…

LYNDON JOHNSON once admonished his White House staff: "I expect a kiss-my-ass-at-high-noon-in-Macy's-window loyalty." No one's going to mistake Gray Davis for LBJ--certainly not after the governor's address yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles, broadcast live statewide. Davis didn't demand loyalty,…

THE LATEST from the Left Coast: Bill Simon has taken out radio ads attacking Arnold Schwarzenegger, who reportedly will start running TV ads as early as Wednesday. On the Democratic side, Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, also a candidate to replace Gray Davis, claims that the governor's…

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E Street Band--"The Greatest Little House Band in All the Land"--were in San Francisco this weekend, playing to a sold-out Pacific Bell Park. Too bad the Garden State's favorite son didn't pull a Hillary and adopt another state as his pet cause. He would have made a great…

CALIFORNIA DREAMING has us all in a fog. The best the Democratic presidential hopefuls can do for attention is John Kerry's Philly cheesesteak gaffe, or Al Sharpton's crack about "slapping the donkey" (there's your bumper sticker: "Democrats--Dumb Asses and Proud Of It"). Not that it's hard to get…

WE BEGIN WITH bad news from California: Less than 1,300 hours remain until the state's historic recall election. That means only 54 more days of Arnoldmania--or, roughly 78,000 minutes until the incumbent Gov. Gray Davis finishes the year's second most remarkable political collapse (unfortunately…

IF YOU ASSUMED California's antiwar fetish crested the moment Michael Moore thanked the Academy, dissed the president, and took his Oscar home, guess again.

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Gray Davis is now the target of at least two voter recall drives that could bring an abrupt end to his second term, which Davis barely eked out last November. Admittedly, the idea that he might be recalled sounds ludicrous when you first hear it. Voter recalls have proven…