From
Kevin Drum comes a
report that Arnold said "Never say never" on raising taxes as a solution to balancing the budget. Now that in and of itself is not a mistake, but it was the way in which that statement came out that will hurt him. Earlier in his remarks, he had said unequivocally, "I will not raise taxes." If he was going to say that raising taxes was a possibility, he should have said it in his prepared statement the beginning, not in the end during questions from reporters. Instead of looking like a moderate, he now looks like an unprincipled conservative in this area. Simon and McClintock can attack him for not being sufficiently conservative, but Arnold can't claim the mantle of a moderate.
In related news,
Mark Kleiman says Davis is toast.
