Daniel Weintraub is a professional paid to be an observer and interpreter of California politics by the Sacramento Bee. As a long-time columnist who has seen political fads come and go, political reputations built and destroyed, one might expect him to be more than just a tad cynical about the upcoming gubernatorial recall election in California. But he's not:

Despite the record number of candidates, I would not be surprised if this became a two-man race. Arnold v. Cruz. The immigrant against the son of immigrants. Both of them are going to be doing everything they can to expand the number of people paying attention to politics and participating in it. Combine that with the more traditional, between-the-lines game to be played by most of the other candidates, plus the work of mavericks like commentator Arianna Huffington, and you have the chance for a huge voter turnout, perhaps greater than last year, perhaps greater than any recent election for governor.

And I thought the recall was supposed to be anti-democratic.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/insider/archives/000372.html