Schwarzenegger a different kind of governor for California

CentreDaily ^ | Nov. 15, 2003 | MARY ANNE OSTROM

[FairOpinion]

"How will the new governor deliver on his promise to fix the state's festering problems?

Schwarzenegger's shot at it will be aided by his ability to do what exiting Gov. Gray Davis couldn't: couple his charisma and the public's fascination in him with a ballot-box mandate to build relationships and press his agenda."

---

I think Arnold will surprise a lot of people who are "misunderestimating" him and he will accomplish a great deal, bringing CA back from the brink.

[Elliott Jackalope]

I really hope that Arnold will be a good governor, and do good things for California. That state needs all the help it can get. I would suggest that the first thing he should do as governor is to take a list of every single state agency that exists in California, and then draw a line through half of the names on that list, thereby defunding them and firing everyone who works for those agencies. If you want a real hoot go to www.ca.gov and look up the list of state agencies, aka the "State Agency Index".

You simply would not believe the number of redundant, useless and downright laughable agencies that are funded by that state. Would you believe they actually have an "Acupuncture Board", or an "Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus"? How about the "California State summer school for the Arts"? Or the "Athletic commission"? Or the "Division for Apprenticeship Standards"? It just goes on and on. I'd list more but FR only has so much bandwidth!

[cake_crumb]

I have to remember to watch that. What time will the inauguration be on the West Coast? I'm on the East COast and don't want to miss it. I can catch Rush on PST if necessary.

[ElkGroveDan]

You simply would not believe the number of redundant, useless and downright laughable agencies that are funded by that state. Would you believe they actually have an "Acupuncture Board", or an "Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus"?

Agreed that there are a lot of agencies and boards, but the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus is not a board or agency. It is just a name like all the other legislative caucuses. There is no staff, no budget and no cost to legislative caucuses, they are just PC statements and most of them never even meet or do anything. Its a way for the Asian legislators to say hey look at us there are four of us now.

[FairOpinion]

Schwarzenegger inauguration will be at 11 am Pacific Time, Monday.

[cake_crumb]

Wow...those really DO exist...and why on Earth is the Department of Rural Health Policy Council a seprate agency from the Department of Health Services, and why are BOTH of those agencies seperate from MediCal? Can we say redundancy?

California African- American Museum? That requires a state agency? There's that much black history in California? Georgia I can see, but California? Can't it be privately funded??

[cake_crumb]

11 AM. Thanks. Are you going to run a live thread? I'll try to be on FR for any of those.

[JRandomFreeper]

exiting Gov. Gray Davis couldn't: couple his charisma

Is it even legal to use charisma and the name of the former gov. in the same sentence? Davis didn't have any. He was tested and found chemically free of any trace of charisma.

/john

[giotto]

I wondered how he could ever have gotten elected Governor, but then I remembered that he ran against a man who had even less charisma--Dan Lundgren, a man so devoid of distinguishing characteristics that I can't even remember what he looks like, or anything else about him.

[goldstategop]

What killed Dan Lungren was his aggressive enforcement of the assault weapons ban law here. Republicans took one look at the guy and said do we want a gun grabbing RINO as our Governor? They said no thanks and the rest is history.

[JRandomFreeper]

Dan who?

I would love to spend some time in CA, and work in some of the restaurants there, but there is no way I'll spend time in a state that won't let me carry to protect myself.

I don't expect Arnold to turn that around next week, but I'm pleased with the possibility that someday it may be thinkable.

/john

[South40]

It's a quagmire!

Sorry...wrong thread.

[cake_crumb]

"He was tested and found chemically free of any trace of charisma."

Probably the only chemical he could have been found free OF...

[cake_crumb]

He ran against Simon last year, and won mostly because of one of those pseudo-scandals the left is so good ar perpetrating. By the time the voters realised that Simon was innocent of wrongdoing, they were also learing that Davis had lied aboutthe size of the deficit. Simon doesn't really have enough charisma either, but that stupid lawsuit trick - which worked - didn't help at all.

[South40]

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, arrived in Sacramento 1996 as a celebrity herself, albeit with much a lower profile. As a teenager, she played Zelda on the 1950s sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

Ms. Kuehl

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The challenges are looking huge for Arnoold!

But, K-State beat Nebraska 38-9 today! That is an Earthquake also!

[Avoiding_Sulla]

I think Arnold will surprise a lot of people...

I certainly hope so. I pray that it is me and not you. Do I get your amen here?

who are "misunderestimating" him

That, sadly, could be you too dear.

and he will accomplish a great deal, bringing CA back from the brink.

Now here there are some very noticeable low water marks against which we can judge Arnold's performance.
• First, it is possible the state could go lower still out of no fault of his own; but the Democrat-Media will go all out projecting the failures onto him. Can he beat them at their own game?
• Second, he's gotta get a legislature accustomed to getting its own way to abandon some of the most egregious legislation it ran up while Doofus was still in office. That will take some horse-trading -- so, at what cost? I.e., some low water marks eliminated at the expense of exposing others. How much pain will Arnold inflict on us?
• Third, barring getting improvements from a hostile legislature and recalcitrant bureaucracy, can Arnold muster a landslide victory for the GOP in Nov 2004 along the lines of, even better than, Nov 1994?
Those are only 3 difficulties. The first two are vague enough to give him lattitude to show he deserves your faith even if conservatives are not satisfied. But it also provides him the fodder he needs for political hay making when the Dems block his success.

It is that third one though that must still worry you and us. The third becomes the imperative final arbiter of whether or not your faith was well-placed -- and whether or not we conservatives and the rest of the not-Leftists weren't totally screwed.

[DoctorZIn]

This post has been added to the… California In Transition- Must read Threads!

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[Avoiding_Sulla]

You started this thread FO. It was clearly a hopeful one. You'd like us to have faith in Arnold's possible success -- and a "different kind of governor" -- despite a number of worrying signs.

No matter how much you've protested in the past, I detect that you still exhibit some shakiness in your own faith. I think that's understandable given that there are more than the 3 trouble spots I laid out at number 17 above.

It's refreshing to see that you've finally acceded to those fears to some extent. A sign of your sanity instead of your factionalism.

In the first of 3 concerns I named for you I wrote: "First, it is possible the state could go lower still out of no fault of his own."

Well, Arnold just acknowledged this in his inaugural speech when he said "It is true that things could get worse."

So, don't you finally agree with us?

Arnold also continued "I'm not afraid of a challenge."

You could use him as a model there. This is day 3.

[FairOpinion]

He is Governor, not a Miracle worker.

He can't wave a magic wand and have all CA's troubles go away.

But if there is anyone today, who can turn it around, it's Arnold.

I keep having to remind people -- where do you think we would be in a couple of years with Davis or Bustamante as governors?