| A Recall AND a Fundraiser? I'm toast. |
|---|
 |
| Let's get this over with FAST. Please contribute! |
Posted on 10/12/2003 8:15:11 PM PDT by sfwarrior
"I came, I saw, I conquered" could well have been Arnold's secret campaign motto, for, indeed, the Terminator terminated, and California and the nation will never be the same again. Not since the tax-cutting revolution of Proposition 13 have the vibrations of a California earthquake reverberated so strongly across the nation.
He Came
Arnold entered the race on the deliciously succulent "Tonight Show." Would any other Hollywood star have done it differently? The Republicans had been fielding terrible candidates and had had a hard time connecting with voters. They couldn't get a foothold in a state that was voting more Democratic with each passing election.
The Democratic foothold was also assisted by two other factors: the notorious political gerrymandering of the late state Sen. Philip Burton, which gave lopsided political power to the Democrats, and the fact that the ever-burgeoning minority population of the state is overwhelmingly registering Democrat. Members of that party lead Republicans in numbers of registered voters in California by 11 percent. However, the 53 congressional districts are configured to give the Democrats an unfair advantage; hence, the California congressional delegation has 26 percent more Democrats than Republicans. Why aren't these districts designed in proportion to the political registration?
He Saw
Arnold noted the voter anger, the corruption of Sacramento, the fleeing businesses, the lost jobs, the sinking economy and the steadily declining quality of life. The professional class of commentators, editorial writers and political talking heads, nearly universally, believed the recall would never qualify and that the anger simply wasn't there. After all, they assured themselves, in the history of California, it never had been there before. They were all wrong.
Once the professional pundits found out that the historic recall measure had indeed qualified, they all -- after picking themselves up off the floor -- shifted their arguments to the fact that this anomaly was simply driven by a millionaire's largess and was a power grab by a minority of right-wing Republicans, and that the recall would never actually succeed. The entire political establishment, again, was wrong.
And, Against All Odds, He Conquered
The establishment, from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to the L.A. Times, totally underestimated the angry California voter. The pundits, nearly all of them, originally concluded that a politically inexperienced Hollywood action star from Austria had virtually no chance against a slick, well-oiled incumbent and professional candidate with a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest. Indeed, Davis had all the state's apparatus and special interests working as his get-out-the-vote machine.
Davis' campaign was a total failure. In one of its strangest bits of what's-wrong-with-this-picture ironies, Davis, at one of his final campaign appearances, railed against Arnold's awful womanizing while standing next to Mr. Fidelity himself, Jesse "I've got a love child" Jackson. That was certainly guaranteed to hammer the message home.
Davis' powerful friends had already lined up the armies of Democratic foot soldiers and phone banks: organized labor, minorities and enviros completed the team of warriors protecting the status quo. Even the Republican-leaning California Business Roundtable, a group representing the state's largest employers, opposed the recall. Hey, they're not stupid. They didn't want to waste all the dollars they had already invested in Davis. Who, then, were Arnold's friends? Everyone else, apparently.
No California governor has ever before been recalled, and the last time voters threw an incumbent out of office was 1966 -- when Ronald Reagan defeated Gov. Pat Brown.
Republicans were big winners in this recall election. The two major Republican candidates, Arnold and state Sen. Tom McClintock, collectively received 61.4 percent of the vote. Wow! That was nearly double the number of votes Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante received. It appears Californians are finally fed up with the California-style leftist Valhalla.
Now That He's in, What's Next?
It took much more than movie-star appeal to win an election. It'll take far more to govern. The wave Arnold rode in was one of moderation. Arnold supports gun control, domestic partnerships, choice and big spending for kids. And, although he's a Republican, he's alienated the McClintock wing of the GOP, the conservatives that make up most of the base of California's Republicans. This is one reason only conservatives such as businessman Bill Simon and state Attorney General Dan Lungren before him have gotten the nod in recent Republican gubernatorial primaries.
Arnold, by running in the recall, bypassed the partisan primaries and was able to break through the logjam that prevented many of the more moderate Republicans candidates from receiving the party's nomination.
Arnold is clearly not popular with the base of the Republican Party, and he's most certainly not well liked by the Demos, either. In other words, he's perfect. He's really a nonpartisan, independent-minded leader, the kind many Californians crave. "There is a backlash against extreme partisanship," said Bruce E. Cain, director of the Institute for Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. "I don't see [the partisanship] lessening in Sacramento, but the growing number of independents and the impatience people show with the party way of doing things is a real phenomenon in California."
Mark DiCamillo, director of California's Field Poll, said, "This is not a right-wing conspiracy here. This was a festering problem facing the Davis administration, and it really just took off."
The far-Left composition of the California Legislature represents a unique challenge for the new governor. This is a legislature that passed a law giving illegal aliens driver's licenses and has increased the state budget some 36 percent just in the past four years, while revenues have plummeted. The state government's budget is on life support now. The $39 billion budget gap was to be made up by increased taxes, including the notorious tripled car-registration fees, and a heavy reliance on bonds.
This extraordinary bond borrowing is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which argues that the state constitution forbids deficit spending (using dollars that aren't in the treasury) and holds that the public must vote on bonds.
The natives are restless. Californians are in an impatient mood. Arnold has got to deliver the goods, and deliver them fast -- hopefully, as fast as he does in his movies -- as the gubernatorial honeymoon will likely be short lived. How can he control an intractable Legislature?
Tough-talking state Sen. John Burton (D-SF), full of bravado, is even already egging the governor on, saying, "If he thinks he's going to come in here and be Mr. Terminator, he will have his head handed to him." Oh, yeah? Californians would love to see an Arnold v. Burton fight out in the parking lot. Just imagine the visuals. I think the governor could balance the state budget just on the pay-per-view revenues from that wrestling spectacle.
The typically gracious welcome Arnold should expect from the knuckle-dragging Legislature is best represented by the comments of another Left-leaning bright light, state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), who said, "He'll come in with huge fanfare, the national entourage, all the 'Hollywood in Sacramento' stuff. We won't be enthralled by all that. What's the guy believe? What's he done? So far, all we know is, he's made monster movies." Right you are, John, and he has a part for you in "The Terminator IV."
The new governor has a 10-point agenda for California that most reasonable state residents support. One of his first goals is to repeal the recently tripled and unpopular car-registration tax.
His First Test
After that comes the real heavy lifting. His real test of strength will involve the...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
| A Recall AND a Fundraiser? I'm toast. |
|---|
|
| Let's get this over with FAST. Please contribute! |
50 points for Gryffindor!
Did you hear Bill Wattenburg on KGO last night? He says top Demos are letting contracts like mad in an effort to further increase deficit spending to dig a deeper hole for Arnold to frustrate and embarass him! He was not pro Recall and liked Davis, but thinks this will hurt CA and it's people.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro: "I came, I saw, I stuck around."
Ha, thanks, I'd forgotten about that, too busy focused on joint appearances of his with Slick Willy. Having Jesse nearby while complaining about groping must have looked unbelievably stupid!
I wonder if the long-awaited feminist re-examination of the Clinton presidency is going to be triggered by this? Naw, I hope not!
I doubt Schwarzenneger would have achieved all those bodybuilding titles if he trained by the equivalent of his ``everything should be provided for the people,'' motto. With that, I will leave this analogy for tonight.
Well, that's been the problem, hasn't it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.