“I’ll Be Sorry”
So Schwarzenegger is apologizing now for being an asshole. What a scumbag. Laughing it off and denying it didn’t make it go away, so now he’s apologizing. The fact that this shows him up as a liar probably won’t occur to anyone stupid enough to buy the apology.
I’m a fan of his movies, but the fact that this guy is the front-runner for any political office is mind-boggling. For me, it’s just more evidence of how cynical and self-absorbed the Republican party has become. Screw running the candidate who’s best qualified, they’d rather run the candidate who’s most likely to win despite the fact that he’s least qualified. It’s all about “Just win, baby!” and screw the people.
The election is the point for them, when really the point is what happens after the election. The office in question is called Governor, not Winner.
Therein lies the rub. If you believe the solution to California’s mess is a severe fiscal enema, as I do, then Tom McClintock is the best man for the job. McClintock has the experience and is THE most knowlegable on the budget issues. He can work with the legislature to do what’s right for California and he can talk plainly about the specific issues to Californians. But his conservative stance on social issues makes him unpalatable to a lot of people. So, given a situation where the Democratic party controls every major government office and the legislature, the Republicans ARE forced into a situation where they need a Republican candidate that appeals to a broad base and can get a larger percentage of votes in an election where a small percentage of votes actually means something. Once Arnold is elected (Chuck, I’m speaking hypothetically here :)), and if he does a halfway decent job of it, then the Republicans have a better chance of getting their candidates into office in the next election cycle.
I can tell you that, given a choice between Arnold and Cruz Busta-mecha, I’d pick Arnold. Even with the latest allegations against Arnold. To me, this smacks too much of the typical Davis smear campaign and it shows just how desperate Gumby really is.
I’d rather see McClintock win, but I just can’t stomach the thought of Cruz winning. If he does, things will get even worse than they are now. So you can imagine how frustrated I feel that McClintock has been consistently overshadowed by the travelling circus that is Arnold.
Even still, if Arnold is elected, I hope that he will surround himself with a good staff of smart people, who will help him actually BE a fiscal conservative. I look forward to seeing some balance be restored to the state government. As a native Californian, it sickens me to see what’s become of this state. This is an example of what happens when one political party gains a majority for too many years and is allowed to go apeshit with all their pet projects.
Have we considered the possibility of “No Recall” winning? Because that’s the proper result, IMO.
Davis has done nothing to justify being recalled — the energy crisis was courtesy of Cheney’s cronies and the car tax is a legacy from Wilson’s administration. I dislike Davis probably more than the next guy (he’s been on my radar screen since the early 80’s and I hated him then, too), but this recall is just another Republican power grab that has nothing to do with California politics.
In my view, a recall such as this is appropriate only when the Governor has committed malfeasance or disgraced his office somehow. Davis has done neither, and there’s already a process in place to remove politicians from office that you don’t like — it’s called “don’t re-elect them.”
And re: the “typical smear campaign” — why is making sure people know who Arnold really is a bad thing? Nothing that’s being reported is false, so what’s the problem? You’d be happier, perhaps, if we don’t learn these things until it’s too late to consider them when making a decision?
No recall at all is certainly an option, but I would disagree that Davis did nothing to deserve being recalled. For me, the biggest thing was how he ‘missrepresented’ the size of the budget deficit. Right before the election it was something around 20 B, a week after the election, he comes out and says he made a mistake and the deficit is really closer to 38B. That’s far too much for any rational person to take.
The energy crisis was not caused by Cheney’s cronies. It was caused partly by an extremely badly done deregulation of the California energy market. In this so-called ‘de-regulation’, the wholesale market was deregulated. Suppliers no longer had a price ceiling and therefore the price of energy went up, but the price of energy to the consumer was still regulated so the California energy companies could not pass on the increased prices. The market was stilted and broken. There was also serious infrastructure issues: new powerplants and power lines had not been build for several years prior, thus adding to the problem.
As for the smear campaign, the sexual harassment stuff is mostly true and Arnold has since come clean on that. But I general take a skeptical view of a situation like this when there are so many anonymous accusers. Sexual harrassment is a big deal not to be taken lightly and if the character of the accussed is going to take a hit from this, I would expect that the character of the accusers be examined thoroughly as well.
The LA Times claims that they didn’t sit on this story until now, that they’ve been thoroughly researching things and that the timing is coincidental. Maybe so. But I find it interesting that no one is reporting how much of a temper Gumby has. He’s physically attacked his aides and put one woman in the hospital.
Oh, and the Nazi comments? That guy Butler has since said that Arnold didn’t really say what he said, but actually said something slightly different, which actually makes it look like Arnold didn’t like Hitler at all.