California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in for his second term as governor at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007, in Sacramento Calif. (AP Photo/Brian Baer, Pool)
Posted on 01/05/2007 1:50:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Hobbling to his inauguration on crutches, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised Friday not to be beholden to a political party in his second term and declared that "centrist does not mean weak."
Nursing a badly broken right leg, Schwarzenegger missed the first part of the program before coming out to deliver his speech.
Centrist "does not mean watered down or warmed over," he said. "It means well-balanced and well-grounded."
The Republican governor said his dismal year in 2005, when a clash with the state's public employees union cut his approval rating in half, had awakened him to a new way of doing business.
"Like Paul on the road to Damascus, I had an experience that opened my eyes," he said. "And what was it that I saw? I saw that people, not just in California, but across the nation, were hungry for a new kind of politics, a politics that looks beyond the old labels, the old ways, the old arguments."
Schwarzenegger said growing numbers of independent voters are showing the way to a new era of what he called "post-partisanship." And he called for a new "creative center" in politics.
"This is a dynamic center that is not held captive by either the left or the right or the past," he said.
The state's 38th governor was sworn in by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George, using a Schwarzenegger family Bible from 1878.
To burnish his bipartisan credentials, Schwarzenegger invited the state's top Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of San Francisco, who on Thursday became the first woman speaker of the House, and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, although none of them attended.
The master of ceremonies was another famous Democrat, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who once was speaker of the state Assembly.
The symbolism is important for Schwarzenegger, who will need the cooperation of Democrats again this year as he attempts ambitious reforms in health care and prisons. Democrats hold majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in for his second term as governor at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007, in Sacramento Calif. (AP Photo/Brian Baer, Pool)
symbolism is important for Schwarzenegger
nuff said
The way things are going, I'm tempted to boo the man.
Wow...even with a broken feee-ma.
Excerpts from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inaugural address:
AP
http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/APN/701054315
"Every day has been an adventure. As a matter of fact, my escapes have been more hair-raising than anything I did in the movies."
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"... The California historian Kevin Starr says that we must think of ourselves as belonging not just to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party but to the Party of California because California is a collective ideal worth preserving. The Party of California is beyond ideology and one to which all of us belong."
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"Some pundits said that I won re-election because I co-opted the Democratic agenda. Some said that the Democratic Legislature, by working with me to increase the minimum wage or reform prescription drug costs, abandoned the Democratic nominee for governor. This is the kind of partisan thinking that frustrates the voters and diminishes our democracy. The people are disgusted with a mindset that would rather get nothing done than accomplish something through compromise."
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"We don't need Republican roads or Democratic roads. We need roads. We don't need Republican health care or Democratic health care. We need health care. We don't need Republican clean air or Democratic clean air. We all breathe the same air."
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"I believe we have the opportunity to move past partisanship ... to move past bipartisanship ... to post-partisanship. Post-partisanship is not simply Republicans and Democrats each bringing their proposals to the table and working out differences. Post-partisanship is Republicans and Democrats actively giving birth to new ideas together."
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"Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down or warmed over. It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The American people are instinctively centrist, so should be our government."
Ahnold is a liberal girly-man.
>>>>>"It is time we combined the best of both ideologies into a new creative center. This is a dynamic center that is not held captive by either the left or the right or the past."
Sounds more like the third way more akin to Clinton`s triangulation. It sure doesn't sound like anything to do with the US Constitution. Ahnold has never advanced a conservative policy agenda, because he`s never understood what conservatism was all about. And he never will! Ahnold's historic past is wrapped up in the politics of euro-socialism, and that is exactly what his ideas for America's future are all about. No thanks.
Where do I begin? Never mind.
"I swear to uphold the rights of illegal aliens"
So he's a centrist? Then why do we mention him as a Republican? How many of you here tried to make that rational that this boob was better than ole Grayout. Wouldn't it have been better to take the risk of a McClintock win rather than this traitor? Not to most here. Got your heads stuck up you --- just because a (R) is behind the name.
Baloney. This is partly why Bob Dole diidnt win in 96. Because he was a compromise man. He didnt like confrontations with Democrats, or anyone else for that matter. Dont forget, he was willing to give the Clintons half of what they wanted on their Health Care takeover.
And NONE of the Hillary Clinton health care agenda IS better than compromising and giving them half, or anything they wanted. But to hear Arnold the giirly man tell it, a compromise is better than nothing.
I am one of those mindsets. Better nothing than half a socialist agenda.
Which goes to show that they are smarter than he is.
Those girly man supporters are awfully silent.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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