Grand Opera - California style

A number of years ago Californians elected another actor to be governor and he went on to the White House. Since Arnold was not born in this country he cannot go there but he has apparently grabbed a lot of attention this week with his surprise announcement that he will seek the post of governor.

This whole situation is the stuff of Grand Opera. My god, where is Giuseppe Verdi when you need him? Many of his greatest operas were about real life political intrigue and the current situation in California is no less. What a cast of characters we have here and you certainly need a program to keep up with them all. The biggest surprise is that Rep. Issa, the one who started this whole recall thing, dropped out of the race.

So we have Arnold Schwarzenegger as the main Republican candidate with a whole bunch of lesser characters also seeking the post. Even two Democrats have broken rank with Davis and are running.

Since Schwarzenegger is in, Riordan is out. Ariana Huffinton is in but her ex, Michael, is out. Peter Camejo was in but is now out. Sen. Feinstein says no but a number of her supporters are still urging her to jump in. Rep. Pelosi apparently says that if Dianne says no, she will say yes. Yikes!

Then we have Playboy publisher Larry Flynt in the race and the list goes on and on. I think there are over 200 people who have taken out filing papers for this post. You could probably say "Only in California".

The prelude is now being performed and the opera will begin right after the filing deadline this weekend. It will probably be a one act opera but with many scenes and a huge cast. The grand finale will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 7th. That is when the fat lady will sing unless of course, the lame duck withdraws, but for the sake of Verdi, or opera composers still alive, I hope he doesn't. This must play out until the final curtain.