Brown Has the Experience. Does He Have the Ganas?

The Honorable Jerry Brown is one of those larger-than-life politicians with a smaller-than-life persona that has served as the political wallpaper in many of our mental kitchens. While I may have still been watching the later episodes of Land of the Lost on Saturday mornings when he began his ascent, the question for the youngest governor in California history and perhaps the oldest, come November 2nd is this: Can he marry his experience with the energy and will needed to win against a well-funded, fresh-faced opponent?

Brown faces the monied juggernaut of Meg Whitman, the Republican nominee who has spent almost $100 million of her own money thus far in an attempt to secure -- a few say purchase -- the brass ring of California politics: the governorship. I am mindful of what George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." In politics, we all have our 1st amendment rights but some seem to be more equal when backed by an endless stream of Benjamins.

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