Well, let's see, California has been led by Democrats and fairly liberal Republicans for 30 years or more and has built itself into somewhere between the 5th and 8th largest economy in the world. Gad, what a dismal failure! Buoyed by the mother of all federal projects, the California Aquaduct, the state outproduces the entire rest of the country in agriculture. Idaho potatos, Florida oranges, Georgia peaches, Iowa corn? Nope, all outproduced by California's central valley by nearly an order of magnitude. Would there be a high tech industry without the research done at Stanford in the 1960's? The entertainment industry may be filled with bleeding heart liberals, but as Arnold can attest to first hand, it is incredibly profitable and the envy of the rest of the world.

Have benefit requirements and environmental regulations perhaps gone overboard and cost the state dearly in corporate profit? Yes, but the install a thumbtack with a sledgehammer accusation could also be leveled at the now infamous proposition 13 that in addressing a problem with skyrocketing home values and thus property taxes threw California's budget so out of whack that it has never recovered. Once ranked as #1 in education, including state higher education institutions that competed on a level with the best in the country, public or private, the state now ranks 49th in the union with rumors flying about the possible loss of top researchers from the UC system.

The rest of Ann's article is typical Ann, lots of ranting and very few facts. I personally know several civil engineers working for the state and they are absolutely not paid more than their private sector counterparts. The main appeal is the concept of a job that is year round and not subject to the bidding whims of the private construction companies.

Laugh at California at your own peril, because very often as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation.

I don't rise to defend Ann Coulter's style or veracity. But I do find her very funny and sometimes it's good to hear her say what others cannot.

I dare say that the incredible achievements that you list are mostly in the past. Gray Davis/Willie Brown/Barbara Boxer, et al would NOT build the Aqueduct (endangered snails!) and would NOT build the awesome education system (elitist Stanford and Berkeley will not have enough gay Mesopotamian handicapped students!).

The high-tech sector fed off the education and infrastructure that Mom, Dad, and Grandpa built, the current crop would not have done it.

Since Reagan left, this towering economy has slipped. Look at the geographic and economic advantages that California enjoys. They have squandered them! The professional homeless in SF, high taxes, regulatory hurdles that preclude building any power plant or highway. Let us learn from their mistakes (better yet, have Arnold fix them!) before "so goes the country."

Wait, you are aware that Reagan left California about 30 years ago? I know he is something of a diety in Republican cirlces but crediting him for the rise of Silicon Valley seems a bit of a stretch. California's economy continued to grow long after He left. Now, if you want to attribute some of that growth to the defense industry that Reagan poured money into, I can buy that, but I think the high tech sector and entertainment industry flourished without His guiding hand. (I assume it is now standard to capitalize pronouns used to desribe Mr. Reagan?)

The start of the decline in educational ranking probably coincided with the time Reagan moved on, but there were a couple of other interesting events around that time that led to major changes. First, in the early 70's banks and lending institutions started the revolutionary practice of utilizing a wife's income were she working to qualify buyers for a home. Believe it or not, prior to that the wife's income could generally only be used if she was past child bearing age and worked as a teacher or nurse. (You know, good women jobs.) Soon after that the meteroic rise in housing prices started. This in turn led to older folks who suddenly could hardly afford the tax bill on the house they had owned for 30+ years that was now worth 10x what they paid for it. So along came Mr. Howard Jarvis with proposition 13 to cap taxes as long as you owned the same house. Something certainly needed to be done, but this successfully eviscerated the revenue base that was used primarily for schools. Owners were incentivized to remain in their house and neighborhoods grew older and interest in paying for schools by those whose children had long since left the school system predictably waned. Tax revenue dropped, and bonds often failed to pass due to voters who no longer had a vested interest in the school system.

Environmental regulations have also cost California billions. But again in the 70's air quality was just as urgent a problem as skyrocketing property taxes. Imagine growing up in Denver and only being able to see the foothills about 8-10 days a year when the winds grew strong enough to blow the pollution away. That was LA. It really was mind boggling on those clear days to see how close the mountains were.

So alas, the pendulum never stops in the middle, but swings on by and now property taxes are low and environmental regulations high and business are fleeing the cost of doing business in the state of California. But fear not, I expect that the economy will revive and save which every party inherits the current mess. I am rooting for Arnold, his star power actually might have some leverage with the violently partisan Democratic legislature.

Harsh treatment. I do not capitalize pronouns for which Reagan is the antecedent -- I merely pronounce them reverently!

What I tried and failed to convey was a Victor Davis Hansen article in National Review a few years back. That the people who built California, who did the dirty work of dams and roads and power generation and the like, really set up California's success. And that the new generation was too squeamish to do any of that.

Yes, I like Reagan, but I am thinking more before his governorship. Between the Joads and RR's Gubernatorial bid, an infrastructure was put in place that allowed many of the good things that California got.

We agree on Arnold. Go get 'em, big guy!