The State of the Union address, as delivered by Steve Jobs.

Michael Hiltzik on why California — and its Republican governor — should stop looking to the feds for a bailout.

Favorite line:

In a letter to the state’s congressional delegation last week seeking a $6.9-billion federal handout, the governor said “California lawmakers have done nearly everything that can be done to address this historic fiscal crisis.” This is true, if you define “nearly everything that can be done” as “almost nothing.”

We’ve had years of “almost nothing” now, and there’s plenty of blame to spread around for that. My hope is that California’s budget is now so thoroughly broken that the next class of elected leaders will be forced to fix it. Perhaps they could start by rebuilding the car tax that Arnold Schwarzenegger  demolished — which took $6 billion annually out of the state treasury, which is a big part of what knocked the budget out of balance. And a little reform of the prison-industrial complex would help too.

Barack Obama was summoned for jury duty, but has notified the court back in Chicago that he won’t be able to make it.

You may recall that Jerry Brown keeps emailing me and asking me for money even though he’s not running for anything. (Like, say, governor of California.) This has been going on since June of last year. Here’s his first email to me, here’s where he took out exploratory papers, and here’s where he wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. Which I appreciated. My kids didn’t care, and my wife was asleep, but I was humbled and grateful. So I emailed him to return the warm wishes and to ask if he was actually, y’know, running for something — a fair question, given the fundraising — and if so to maybe actually start doing it, because it’s embarrassing having (then) three Republicans announced and no Democrats.

Two months later, he’s emailed back with an answer.

Now, please. Don’t think of this as slow. Yes, the pony express was faster, especially when it was only Sacramento to Burbank. And yes, if at one time it took only 80 days to go around the world, why should this take so long in 2010? But here’s what I would say:  There was that Thanksgiving holiday, and then Christmas, and then New Year’s, and then Martin Luther King Day, and there were lots of Sundays in there, and Jerry has been very busy responding to people wondering why he’s raising money and not actually running. So busy, in fact — that he didn’t answer me personally. He had someone named Lila respond. Here’s what she said:

Hi Lee,
Thanks for your email.  While Jerry is considering a potential run for
Governor, he is not a declared candidate.  He has said that he will
make a decision on the Governor’s race by the filing deadline in
March, until that time he is focused on his job as Attorney General.
Regards
Lila

But this doesn’t seem like much of an answer to me. So I thought I’d try again:

Lila,

Thank you for the response.

I will be supporting whoever the Democratic nominee is, assuming there will be one.

In the meantime, why is Jerry raising money if he’s not running for something? That doesn’t sound like focusing on his job as Attorney General. It sounds like he’s being coy or something. Please explain.

Thank you.

(By the way, the reason I  said “I will be supporting whoever the Democratic nominee is” is because the two Republican candidates are this person (who in very un-Jerry-like fashion declared her candidacy a year ago ) and this person. At one point, a fiscally conservative and socially progressive Republican, Tom Campbell was in the running, but now he’s running for Senate.)

I’ll let you know what Jerry (or Lila) say. I expect an answer around Easter. After the holiday, of course.

I’ve written here many times of my long-standing dislike of John Edwards. (You can find some representative samples of my loathing here.) So I wouldn’t say that the excerpts I’ve read from “Game Change,” the new book about the 2008 presidential campaign that portrays Edwards as a shallow toad, are exactly revelatory. What is new is the attack on his wife for her culpability. I don’t know that I agree — hey, she was battling fatal cancer while, well, being married to him — but at least it’s a new line of attack.

I never count anyone in politics completely out — let’s remember, Marion Barry got re-elected after getting convicted; Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon got partly rehabilitated during their ex-presidencies; lately I’m seeing Eliot Spitzer serving as some sort of pundit on television; and there seems to be a “draft Cheney” movement afoot, which truly beggars the imagination. Nevertheless, I’m hopeful that we’re done with John Edwards. For good.

I’ve gotten countless emails and Facebook updates from friends and activists about the health-care reform bill staggering its way through Congress. On one side are the people asking me to support its passage; these people include my good friend Barack Obama and sometimes his pal Harry Reid, who write and email me frequently, in fact more frequently than people who actually know me by name. Also on this side are what I’ll call party regulars. On the other side stands just about everyone I know.

Last week, and no, I don’t remember the date, I decided I was against the bill. “Inalterably against” was I think the way I put it. I don’t know the date, but I do know the circumstance:  It was after Joe Lieberman got everything he wanted. Although it isn’t even remotely about Lieberman for me, I do have to say that if Lieberman were in favor of the Earth continuing to spin around the sun, I would opt for eternal darkness, because surely that would have to be better. As I put on my Facebook status that day, “Lee Wochner hates Joe Lieberman. Not because he disagrees with Joe Lieberman (disagreeing is fine), and not because of Joe Lieberman’s principles, but because Joe Lieberman has no principles.” Not much to add to that, except the comment this elicited from one respondent:  “But he does have one principle: do whatever is best for Joe Lieberman.” Right.

But again, that’s not why I’m opposed. And I’m sorry to be on the other side of the 31 million or 42 million or whatever the latest number is of people without health insurance who would suddenly get it, but here it is:  I just can’t swallow on the idea that people will have to buy insurance. The notion of being forced to buy insurance raises ugly images of a mishmashed “Brave New World”/”1984” society wherein the proles are forced to buy more to support specific industries and their elites. Every day we move further along that track, and it’s just not right. Even if it didn’t benefit insurance companies (which, obviously, it will), this component of the health-care legislation just isn’t right. In fact, given the nation’s inciting incident, it seems patently un-American. (And please don’t compare it with having to buy auto insurance. As the Department of Motor Vehicles is always keen on reminding us, driving is a privilege, not a right. Living, on the other hand, seems like a right.)

So there it is.  The reprehensible teabaggers and I have found common ground. I’m not happy about it. But at least, unlike them, I’m not acting in lockstep with my cohort.

 Jerry Brown just emailed me again. He didn’t ask me for money this time (for what, I can’t figure out, since he isn’t a declared candidate for anything). Here’s what he had to say:

Dear Lee

As Anne and I get ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, many fond memories of past family gatherings come to mind.  It is on these occasions that my father would often share stories of his family, particularly his grandfather who came across the plains and over the Sierras to Sacramento in 1852.  In those days, the challenges were enormous and of a type we can barely imagine.

Today we face entirely different challenges.  Whether they are bigger or smaller, I can’t say. But I do know that California is still a state of imagination and boundless possibility.  Our pioneering spirit is very much alive and will enable us to handle any of our problems, however daunting they may now appear.

As you take time to enjoy Thanksgiving with your own family and reflect on the year that is drawing to a close, you can take renewed encouragement from the courage and achievements that have made California such a unique and wonderful place.

My best wishes to you and your family.

With respect,

Jerry Brown

I’ve always rather liked Jerry, and I appreciate these emails. So I responded thusly:

Jerry,

Are you running for something?

Because I might consider supporting you if I knew you were running for something.

Perhaps governor? Because there are no Democrats declared in that race. Kind of embarrassing.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Lee

I’ll let you know what he says.

Lou Dobbs may run for President.

In other news, there’s still no Democrat running for governor of California.

Forget “2012.” The true disaster epic set in California is the state budget. It’s already out of whack (again), it’s been out of whack, and it’s only going to get far, far worse.

Meanwhile, here’s how many Democrats are declared in the governor’s race:  none. Jerry Brown is still asking for money, but he’s not running for anything. Of the three Republicans running, two are fantastically wealth, and as such can afford to be deluded about what would fix our state budget. Predictably, they’re vowing to  balance the budget through cuts. News alert to them:  If you cut all the discretionary spending out of the state budget, it won’t balance. The third Republican, Tom Campbell, is someone I’ve met several times and someone I respect, and his determination to balance the budget is serious. For one thing, he’s proposing some tax hikes. But there’s little likelihood the state GOP will nominate him, precisely because of those tax hikes.

Today at a political luncheon I wound up seated with an Assemblyman from Los Angeles County. (No, not the one I’ve often written about here.) I was bemoaning the lack of gubernatorial candidates — again, the Democrats have none declared — and he floated the notion of running.  He figured he’d get 25% of the vote just for not being Jerry Brown. (I figure that number may be low.) I tried to talk him into it, but got nowhere, and then he tried to talk me into it, and got nowhere. And then we talked about all the other people who aren’t running and won’t run:  the state controller, the former state superintendent of schools, either of our senators… oh, the list is endless.

Our projected deficit over the next two years is $41 billion. And almost no one will stand up and do something about it. That’s a sad statement. It makes me think that with similar leadership 230 years ago, we’d all still be subjects of the British crown.

I’m sorely tempted to get my name on the ballot. Just to be a nuisance.