About a year ago, this column surveyed the potential candidates for governor and the problems that Arnold Schwarzenegger's successor would face and offered a semi-facetious suggestion that "perhaps all of them should undergo mental evaluation for even thinking about governing California."
A few months later, on NBC's Today show, host Matt Lauer read that passage to one would-be governor, Meg Whitman, and elicited a characteristically vague response, something to the effect that while "California is failing," she was "uniquely qualified" to save it because she once ran eBay.
Whitman's self-proclaimed unique qualifications apparently include an almost total failure to vote, or even register to vote, until a few years ago -- a revelation by The Sacramento Bee that plagued her during what she had hoped would be a triumphant appearance at last weekend's state Republican convention.
Ironically, as Whitman was trying to explain away her failure to perform the most elemental civic chore, Democratic frontrunner Jerry Brown was at a gathering of party activists in San Diego and echoing the suggestion that running for California governor raises questions about one's mental health.
"People ask who's going to be the next governor," Brown, a former governor and now California's attorney general, told the group. "You have to ask who in their right mind would want to be the next governor."
But back to Whitman. She's filthy rich and has spent some of her jillions on high-priced political consultants, so you'd think that she would know that her scanty voting record could be a killer issue and would have quickly put it behind her. But earlier this year, she told a Republican audience that she had registered as a declined-to-state voter after returning to California in 1998.
In fact, as The Sacramento Bee revealed and she finally acknowledged at the GOP convention, she didn't register to vote in California until 2002 and didn't declare her Republicanism until two years ago. "She misspoke, and it was wrong," her spokeswoman said.
Whitman herself did what she usually does when faced with tough questions from reporters -- clammed up. "I've said what I'm going to say about it, so thanks for that," she responded as reporters tried to question her about why she failed to vote.
Business moguls often are surrounded by sycophantic aides who shield them from critical questioning. Politicians can't hide, and if they try, they come across as cowardly and not ready for prime time.
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