Sacramento: May 2007 Archives

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign -- it'll be official Wednesday -- is the politically shrewd move, coalition politics and Sanjaya-like Obama passion aside.

And it has nothing to do with presidential politics. Gubernatorial politics, maybe. Or, for sure.

By giving Hillary the biggest Latino political endorsement to date, which will be especially helpful in the suddenly important California presidential primary, Antonio assures himself of being able to call in a quid pro quo for Bill and Hillary's endorsement when the mayor announces his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, as everyone expects him to do.

Those Clinton endorsements will mean a lot more in Antonio's anticipated statewide run than anything that Barack Obama or any of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls can offer.

Looking to deal with the ongoing problem of runaway film production, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is forming a special panel to keep the movie business in Hollywood.

Nunez said he is forming the Select Committee on the Preservation of California's Entertainment Indusry, to be chaired by Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank. The committee will look at what the state can do to stop runaway production due to incentives being offered by other states.

"California 's entertainment industry is a treasured part of California's heritage, and it is also an invaluable foundation for our economic future," Krekorian said. "So many other states and countries are working overtime to lure this industry away from us because they know it produces tremendous economic benefits and revenues with good middle class jobs. Let me make clear -- we are going to fight hard to keep those jobs here, keep California competitive and make sure the state is a great partner for this industry."

Did you get the sense during Thursday night's first GOP presidential debate, that if Hollywood were going to cast someone in the role of John McCain at this stage of his life, it would have to be Clint Eastwood?

"We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell."

Add that to "Go ahead, make my day," "Do you feel lucky? Do you?" and all of Clint's famous good-guy lines.

McCain did what he had to do in relaunching his campaign. He re-established himself as a swashbuckler, which is saying a lot for Republicans. And, in a setting in which every candidate tried to kiss up to Nancy Reagan, it was only McCain who went beyond being a knee-jerk conservative. He was the only candidate to whole-heartedly say he would back Nancy's personal campaign of getting funding for embryonic stem cell research.

It's not that some of the other candidates, most notably Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, didn't impress in their own. But you expected that. You expect the top tier people to put their best foot forward -- and to have learned a lesson from Barack Obama's timidity in the first Democratic debate last week.

Some people say the ghost of Ronald Reagan still lives in the Oval Office. Well, this afternoon Nancy Reagan has been the supreme hostess in the Oval Office.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's Oval Office -- an exact replica of how it was during the Reagan presidential years.

Nancy has been greeting each of the 10 Republican presidential candidates in tonight's first GOP debate at the library's Oval Office