When a politician goes on TV and radio and says over and over that “Taxes are too high,” and “California must operate under a budget,” how is that a “whisper campaign?”
Every politician on the planet says that. Let me know if you ever locate a politician who gets elected by saying "I'm a fiscal liberal, vote for me and I will increase wasteful spending and raise your taxes". Doesn't happen. Even FDR ran on a platform to streamline and downsize government, then gave us the New Deal.
It was clear from Arnold's actions and his policies that he was no "fiscal conservative". Arnold had married into and been brainwashed by the Kennedy clan, surrounded himself with left-wing advisers and Hollyweird types, and his only government involvement had been to support new nanny state programs like "afhtar schewl programs fur all de children". Arnold admitted several times his intentions were to "provide programs fur all de people" and even got caught discussing tax hikes with Warren Buffet. He ran hard-left on social issues and openly supported taxpayer funded abortion on demand, gay rights programs, etc. (his fan club here said it didn't matter, everyone must vote for him anyaway) He made it ABUNDTLY clear he despised conservatives and the GOP platform, calling efforts to repeal affirmative action the work of "right wing crazies" and so on.
His only "conservative" beliefs were soundbites, as calcowgirl noted, they were part of a campaign script he memorized so he could have applause lines like "live within our means", "tear up de credit cards" and "blow up de boxes". If you actually studied his policy positions in detail, there was no big conservative plan to shrink government, just alot of smoke and mirrors, and feel good promises to have transparency.
The pro-Arnold freepers were warned that he was lying through his teeth and given amble evidence of his liberalism, they chose to ignore it. The signs were all there. Just like how Mark Kirk recently ran as a "fiscal conservative" in Illinois and lied through his teeth about how he would be a "lame duck killer", then promptly voted for every big government gravy bill and Obama pet priority his fellow liberals needed to pass before January.
The reason why these RINOs keep getting away with calling themselves "fiscal conservatives" is because gullible GOP voters keep drinking the kool-aid and ignoring the candidate's nature because the want to "win" at all costs.
When is the last time ANY RINO who campaigned as a "fiscal conservative" actually governed that way? It doesn't happen.
He made these promises too. When a politician makes such promises, guess which ones you should believe? If you saw where Arnold's money was coming from, you'd have known better.
No, it was the third party "Arnold is a fiscal conservative; he can win" campaign that made the difference, organized by Bob White under the direction of Pete Wilson and Gerry Parsky that made the difference.