Obama '08 is coming your way. ...

A large, youthful, and enthusiastic crowd welcomed Senator Obama to San Francisco's Civic Center last night. To finish off a busy day down south at Google and also Steve Westly's house, Barack Obama came to visit and take a few jabs at fellow senator Clinton. More after the jump.......

--Love the San Jose public library -- just don't love the San Jose public library. --An Angelides aide says they found the "hot blooded Latino" audio clip on a publicly-accessible website. Also, former Steve Westly manager Garry South seems to be calling Matier and Ross a lot. --The City of Oakland accidentally turned down a historic garden by Lake Merritt, and now has to make it into condos. --Water fountain pressure is low at Oakland......

While doing our standard election-night browsing, we dropped by the Guardian to see if any late reports were filed online -- but the site was down! Details at this point are still very, very sketchy, but the initial report from Steven T. Jones suggests foul play:Maybe there is something to this 6/6/06 numerological weirdness after all. The mood seems dark and sinister for an election day. And it was certainly some devilish characters who......

Sure, you're all into this upcoming election to vote on bond measures and Central Committee members, but some of us are psyched on the big vote, the one to see who will get clobbered by take on the Governator. Will it be cool, techy Steve Westly or the spry and wiry Phil Angelides? What do they say on the issues? What do they want to do to take the state in a new direction? What is on their iPod lists? We dunno. Actually, for you, dear readers, we did some research to help you figure it all out. Sadly, we couldn't find a damn thing about their iPod lists (we're guessing it won't include Nelly) but did find out a whole bunch of other stuff. So here, as our final report, is the handy-dandy guide SFist has put together to the respective Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates. ...

This may seem hard to believe, but after all that fund raising and all that ass-kissing, and all those Stones concerts, as the new year dawns and his re-election mounts, Herr Governator's campaign is almost completely broke. As in having no money-- nada. As in having only slightly over $140,000 in hand, something which wouldn't even cover a political consultant's expensed lunch. Throw in all the outstanding fees he has and he's actually over $400,000 in debt. Expect his next big fund-raiser to be a potluck in his living room with one of his children DJing with their iPod. ...

Schwarzenegger's approval ratings maybe dropping like a coked-out c-level starlet's weight (he’s polling worse than the President in the state) but that doesn't mean he's in big trouble if he decides to run for re-election next year. In fact, he's in fairly decent shape for the same reason Republicans are always in a fairly decent shape come election time, lame Democratic candidates. Right now, the two main contenders to try and take the governship, Steve Westly and Phil Angelides, have been drawing nothing but the big yawn from the collected mass of California voters. And yes it's way early and yes, neither of them have been out and about doing the baby-kissing thing. But both of them are, how shall we say it, charisma challenged and while that hasn't stopped people from winning the Governership before (see Davis, Gray), they never ran against somebody who took down an entire police station with nothing but a car and guns in a movie. So the big parlor game in certain circles is trying to come up with a better candidate to run against Herr Governator. ...

So good luck dealing with any state agencies tomorrow -- they'll be shut down in observance of Cesar Chavez Day (though that could all change if the Governator has his way). So if you just have to find State Comptroller Steve Westly, he'll probably be sipping cocktails at the 19th Green somewhere -- we mean, uh, reflecting upon and honoring the life of one of America's greatest folk heros on what would be his......

California politicians are in a state of shock after hearing the news that soon-to-be-former Sec. of State Kevin Shelley's Palm Pilot was stolen from his Glen Park home. "It's crazy! I'm getting emails from people pretending to be Hugh Hefner!" said beleaguered state controller Steve Westly. The Palm Pilot, which Shelley repetitively bragged about having used to raise millions of dollars off of, not only contained the personal email and cell phone information of many of California's hottest political celebs but also, more embarassingly, personal notes like "get Help America Vote kill pill" and "check from Julie Lee," as well as some triple-x hottt [NSFW, or ever, really] photos of Shelley in compromising positions with state treasurer Phil Angelides and insurance commissioner John Garamendi. Politicians from Schwarzenegger on down are bracing themselves for an onslaught of calls from bored teens looking for fun. But the most intriguing entry? "Newson, san fran mayor, 415-[redacted]." JK, JK. Shelley did lose his Palm Pilot, though. He blames disgruntled employees. ...