Glenn Reynolds offers one of the best analyses I have seen of the California election. One of his readers opined:

Part of the blame for the California mess must be assigned to the state's Republicans for their sheer political ineptness in recent years. The system doesn't work when there is no credible opposition party.

Sooner or later, the two major parties will wake up to the fact that Americans are sick to death of the dreadful primary system which dictates the dominance of shrill minorities out of touch with the majority of Americans. Americans do not want to choose between Marxism and Fundamentalism. Yet, as ordinary Americans move away (RUN away) from these two extremes, the two extremes become more and more extreme, more and more committed to grabbing the reins of power in each party, and more and more duty-bound to perpetuate the system which keeps them in power.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was a fluke -- for the simple reason that he was able to successfully bypass the tyrannical, yes evil, primary system. He could never have survived the primaries to become the Republican candidate -- precisely because he is in touch with reality, and in touch with the thinking of the majority of Californians.

Ironically, nothing in the Constitution dictates that the primary system should have such a stranglehold on reality -- to say nothing of American democracy itself. It just happened.

Because shit always does.

Leave it to crazy California to have a loophole which allowed democracy to sneak through.

UPDATE: Anyone who is interested in how the recall election relates to the very nature of democracy should be sure not to miss this analysis.