John Roberts' vision of democracy

The eBay billionaire's campaign for governor has turned into a political phenomenon, the likes of which the Golden State has never seen. The unprecedented ad blitz — so much and so soon — has TV and radio executives smiling and many of their viewers grumbling. Like it or not, the result is indisputable: More than two months before the primary and seven months before the general election, Whitman has grabbed California's attention. Even second-graders are asking their parents about the woman who keeps popping up on their TV.

In the first 2½ months of this year, the Whitman campaign spent $27.2 million — more than $4 a second. At that pace, in the time it takes to read this sentence aloud, the campaign will have spent another 50 bucks to pulverize her already-battered GOP opponent, Steve Poizner, whom she's beating by 50 points in the polls.