Will the GOP's Next Rising Star Emerge From Liberal California?

Many people think that California could the the place the revitalization of the Republican party occurs. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman may spring onto the national scene by becoming the next governor of California.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

(08-09) 19:45 PDT -- Despite California's sorry status as an economic basket case, some GOP voices are suggesting, ever so hopefully, that the Golden State could be poised for a new profile - as the birthplace of a potential renaissance for the Republican Party. Many people think former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will spring onto the national scene by becoming the next governor of California.

And it could start at the top, some argue, with the 2010 campaign for governor.

National conservative columnist George Will penned a gushing piece to that effect after he got a rare, close-up look at billionaire former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and her well-funded campaign to become the next Republican governor. "Although California is a blue state, it has had Republican governors for 30 of the last 43 years," he wrote. "The Republican revival nationally might begin here next year."

Fox News pundit Fred Barnes, the executive editor of the Weekly Standard, has also gone gaga over Whitman, turning California into a potential stepping stone for the GOP's comeback.

"Everything is going to change after the 2010 election, when all these new faces will come into the Republican Party," he recently predicted.

And Whitman, he wrote, could be the key as "governor of the biggest state, a brainy, conservative, accomplished woman at the top of the Republican ladder. When Reagan was elected governor in 1966, the speculation about national office - president, vice president - erupted instantly."