the governator

[seren1411]

I can't decide whether Schwarzenegger as Gov of California is a good or bad thing.

The idea of Arnie being involved in politics is pretty horrifying - but a DEEPLY irresponsible part of me is going with the idea that if it keeps him out of film, it can't be 100% bad... (though that could just be the part of me that was forced to watch 'End of Days' and 'Eraser'!)

[Benwa]

I imagine one positive thing about the recall is perhaps it got people to open their eyes about their leaders. Part of me likes the notion of a recal, it hold alot of potential. If a guy isn't doing a good job, then we should be able to get him out of there. I use "him" intentionally because women have yet to represent themselves accurately in the leadership roles. Gov't is still pretty much an all boys club. An all rich, white boys club. So Arnie fits right in.

But part of me dislikes the recall, it offers too much potential for boloney politics. Putting all there effort into boloney instead progress. I've never seen a group who acts as if they do so much, yet do so little.

I am curious as to what voter turn out was. Any of you California folks know? I imagine it was similar to usual, the majority of people choosing not to vote.

It isn't clear what aronold stands for except for touching boobs and terminating. So its difficult to determine if he'd be a good leader. Its a common strategy in political campaigns lately. Wishy washy stances with smoke and mirrors equals a win. Anyway it won't be the first time a bad leader was elected, it happens everytime. But we always get a chance to elect another bad leader. Ain't America groovy.

[meatwad]

Bring on the flames!

The way I see it, California has been one big experiment of what not to do for the last couple of decades. It pretty much doesn't matter at this point what they do. They should break of from the Union and just call themselves Canada II.

Oh the backlash to that ought to be tremendous. :D

[seren1411]

Hey I'm British - politics AIN'T all-male here! Even though there's still plenty of gender/racial bias, during my lifetime we've had both female PM and monarch.

ANYHOW, the Arnie as governor thing: outside the States, v little has been detailed regarding campaign issues. He DID have some, right???

The things that have filtered through to the European press have been basically:

Schwarzenegger's running for Gov. 25yr old sex & drugs 'scandal' [i.e. interview given in soft porn mag by 'wannabe']. "Schwarzie" won...

The Press take on the whole thing is basically: He's a Hollywood star and is being elected to the voting district that includes Hollywood - so whatever may come, they're reaping fruit of their own sowing. They're already poised and waiting for the chaos!!!

[Rainster]

meatwad -- actually, California's politics in the past few decades have set the tone for OR and WA statewide initiative trends. (Specifically, medical marijuana and affirmative action initiatives.) This isn't the thread to debate either of those issues, I just wanted to say that yeah, ballot initiatives in CA have policy implications for states with similar constitutional provisions...

[jku]

Rainster is right - the politics here impact the region, and the nation.

I think its a good thing "Schwarzie" won, although I didn't favor the Recall for the precedent it set. Davis' issues in re to running the state are no different than the other 49 governors running deficit budgets - and lets not forget that for every issue DAVIS was recalled on, Bush is guilty of as well. I can dream that the Republicans won't be hypocritical on this issue, but who am I kidding.

BTW, Davis was about as right wing as you could get. Totally corporate owned and operated, particularly with the Indian Tribes; the only time he signed progressive acts was when he thought he was going to lose his job and felt he needed to rally his base. Blind partisanship for Davis just because he CALLS himself a liberal progressive is dumb - we judged the man on his actions, and those were clear. I get annoyed that people talk about recalling Schwarzie already - that is the kind of partisanship I think America is sick of.

I think the Schwarzie speech on Oct 8 was excellent; he is putting together a bipartisan team to take on a bipartisan issue - he is progressive on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion. I think he is more open to reforming our cruel drug laws (does anyone realize Tommy Chong will do 9 months in FEDERAL prison for selling BONGS?!). Schwarzie (thanks Seren, I suggested that abbrev to my Producer at work! Will let you know what they say) so far seems to be hitting the right targets.

California gets back 77 cents for every dollar we put into the Federal budget. Many southern states get far more back on the dollar than what they contribute. You non-Californians may be complaining that we're a bunch of loons, but we paid that upgrade to asphalt on your formerly dirt paved highway. :)

And don't forget that many liberals voted for Arnold, and that's why he won. Bush is dreaming if he thinks he can pull his Bush-it
on our State in 2004. We knew Gore was the guy to go with in 2000, and by the looks of America and the World today, California was right.

[Rainster]

Funny (but not hilarious) commentary on Schwarzie, American voters, and California. Even jokes about CA being viewed as not really part of the US. ;)

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16924

[dakotagopher]

What I like when an unconventional person is elected to high office is that maybe it shows the career policitians that they're not quite as essential to everybody's survival as they like to think they are.......

RE Arnold selecting a broad bi-partisan team to run the show.....this is the same thing Ventura did in MN........worked OK for a couple of months, then the pressures from the interest groups just got too strong and nothing got done. Of course Ventura was an Independent so he had little support in the legislature....but I doubt the CA legislature is run by Republicans so Arnold will probably have the same problem getting a consensus on anything important.

JKU - sligthly unfair painting right wingers as 'totally corporate owned' - while the Republicans have historically been beholden to the business world, the Democrats dance to the same song from the unions and a handful of other special interest groups. Until the money is removed from the process, this will continue.....we need true campaign finance reform sooner rather than later.

In summary, I still think the Republicans were foolish to foment this recall. They should have left Davis to stew in his problems (granted, many of CA's problems are not his fault) and taken a run at state gov't en masse in the next election. Now, Arnold may soon be seen as the problem, booted out of office before he has any elected political allies in place to help him make changes.

[meatwad]

Originally posted by Rainster
meatwad -- actually, California's politics in the past few decades have set the tone for OR and WA statewide initiative trends. (Specifically, medical marijuana and affirmative action initiatives.) This isn't the thread to debate either of those issues, I just wanted to say that yeah, ballot initiatives in CA have policy implications for states with similar constitutional provisions...

Thank you for proving my point. :D

[jku]

Hi SEREN - this is what the PRODUCER told me about using SCHWARZIE instead of his full name on our shows...

"Very intriguing, but I don't think it will happen think of "Stormin' Norman
Schwarzkopf"
equally hard to spell and fit but never shortened in chyron, I think if Arnold
was
a talk show host, etc yes, but Governor no. (:

Very funny...

[seren1411]

I can't believe you asked your producer about that!!!! :razz:

Hmmm... he may have a point, though - I think you're supposed to be taking Arnie seriously now.

Still, 'Go Schwarzie, go Schwarzie'... works almost as well as 'Go Jerry' :D