I hope that the positive effect of the Gonzalez campaign will be that more people will be interested in politics and pay attention to issues 24/7. There really should be more than 15% of the population of the city and county of San Francisco deciding the future of this great place.

But already the pundits are weighing in and saying that the energy created by the progressive party campaign won't last; Despite loss, Gonzalez remains hopeful.

But look at Tom Ammiano and what happened to him after his 1999 run for mayor. Ammiano was a write-in candidate, talk about serious grass roots, but where is he now - he's still around but hardly influential.

Politics like life is a slog. I give credit to the Newsome campaign because they've been at this since Care not Cash. They were organized, and they worked really hard. I don't expect those suppporters and organizers to go away.

I went to his first campaign rally, and the guy definitely has something. I'm not even sure what it is, but he's definitely got his own kind of political charisma. I've been down to the Newsome campaign HQ for volunteer meetings, and his people have high hopes for him.

They were talking even Governor of the state, and those people were serious and probably started planning their long term strategy from day 1 of Care not Cash. Newsom's people are taking a page out of the GOP winning playbook. They know that politics is a long term process that can take years to have any success. They say Bill Clinton has presidential ambitions in his mind in college.

It's the tortoise and the hare story all over again. The tortoise is slow, but it wins the race. Much of life is like a tortoise race. They say writing is like a tortoise race. Writing is a slog, and you can work for years and years without any hope of success. Those writers who are successful are the ones who've been working day after day, day in day out, with their attention always on the long term result.

The progressives have some great deas, and I hope they keep at it. We need everyone's ideas and energy to make the city a better place. Only time will tell.