In conservative land, California is a bankrupt third-world basket case. And in truth, Arnold Schwarzenegger left the state in pretty bad shape. But in the two years since we got Democrats back in charge

California leads the nation in job creation



California contributed more than 15 percent of the nation’s new jobs between October 2011 and October 2012 - adding more jobs in 12 months than Texas and the rest of the other top-10 fastest-growing states combined - while home building is bouncing back and demand for houses is increasing.

Of the 171,000 new jobs the entire U.S. added in October, 27 percent were in California. And since the beginning of the year, California has added nearly 300,000 jobs, outperforming Texas by a decent margin and outpacing New York by more than 2 to 1.

The end-of-2012 results were even more impressive San Francisco is overrun with cranes , as the new digital economy (Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter) continue to be HQ'd in the Bay Area. Heck, add Samsung to the pile.

Conservatives have made hay of reports of California companies leaving the state. And it's true! Some have—254 in 2011, to be exact. Conservative media had a field day with that little stat. On the other hand, 132,000 new businesses were created that same year—second highest per capita in the nation, tied with Texas, and behind only Arizona. And that was California's down year.

And California's Democratic takeover has now given us a healthy budget surplus this year, something Ahnold couldn't manage without gimmickry.

I'm not sure why conservatives are so obsessed with California's failure. I don't root for Alabama or Oklahoma or Utah to suck. But if your entire worldview is predicated on the fiction that gay people, Hollywood, Latinos, Nancy Pelosi, and taxes kill society, then I guess California's fate is critical for validating that nonsense.

Too bad it ain't California going down. In fact, all those things they hate about California is what makes it so fabulous.