Posted on 06/23/2004 10:13:01 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Mr. Schwarzenegger... made it clear that he expected a prominent role at the Republican National Convention in New York in late August.
"Whether I'm speaking, I'll leave that up to them," said Mr. Schwarzenegger, a global celebrity who has emerged as perhaps the most intriguing new Republican face of the political season. "If they're smart, they'll have me obviously in prime time."
Mr. Schwarzenegger said that while he would appear with Mr. Bush if the president comes to California, he had no plans to travel outside of the state to stump for him. "If I start flying around and not spending time here, it could backfire big time," he said, adding that Californians elected him to be their full-time governor and that he was not going to risk his standing by devoting himself to national politics.
Asked to describe his governing philosophy seven months after toppling Gray Davis in California's recall election, he said, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women."
He stopped himself. "Wait a minute, that's Conan," he said. "I stepped out of character here for a second."
He said that after the budget was passed he planned to turn his attention to revamping the state's troubled energy supply system and to streamlining state government, which he refers to as "blowing up boxes."
Mr. Schwarzenegger said business lessons he learned in Hollywood applied directly to running the nation's most populous state. Success, he said, requires a combination of discipline, optimism, humor, a willingness to share credit and good cigars and an ability to cut back-room deals.
"No matter what the debate is I will continue believing in God," he said.
On fiscal matters, Mr. Schwarzenegger considers himself an old-school Republican determined to ferret out waste. No item is too minor to escape his attention.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The media of course is trying to spin it, that Arnold is not supporting Bush sufficiently, when in fact he is happy to speak at the convention and is planning to travel with Bush in California.
Now, if the Republicans adopted Arnold's philosophy of how to deal with their enemies...
Arnold should speak in a primetime slot.
Conan The Governator.
determined to ferret out waste
8-? In what decade?
Oh, This is from the NY Times after all ;-)
yawn
Arnold has only been governor for barely six months!
And he's accomplished a tremendous amount. Just wait until his next term, with good things along the way.
LOVE IT!!!!
This is a terrific cartoon. :)
Just remember that this is a tough election for Bush.
Arnold could ensure a large audience and energize a lot of viewers/voters and maybe we'll get those extra few hundred people out to vote in key states, which wins Bush the election.
One would think that Bush supporters would be happy -- or do you support Kerry?
What will he veto and where will he make cuts?
For the first time ever, we have a proposed 103 billion dollar budget, the highest in history, for criminy sake.
You want me to slap him on the back for potentially approving that, which appears more and more likely?
Where are his performance review findings and the reforms that will "flow" from them?
What agencies and commissions will be eliminated to effect cost-savings? What about the rampant abuse of state monies to pad pension plan payouts and garner political favor?
Have a good one. ;-)
Let's hope and pray we beat the 'Rats in November and we'll all be better off long-term.
During the Recall saga, Hugh Hewitt promoted Arnold by saying he would be able to raise money for Senate candidates like Jim DeMint of SC. Yesterday, DeMint won the GOP run off primary. Would Arnold raise money for GOP Senate candidates or his interest strictly limited to CA?
Arnold certainly has been raising money for Republican candidates IN California.
Remember, he has a tough job in CA, and if he would run around campaigning out of state, he may not get reelected here, which would be bad for CA.
But he is speaking at the Republican National Convention, which will help Bush.
My dream is to have Arnold campaign really hard for Bush in CA, and have Bush carry CA.
Arnold isn't a conservative if you mean he's Ronald Reagan. Reagan couldn't win in today's California. All that said a RINO here is preferable to the Democrats who have run California into the ground.
How many more times do we need to go over this?
The choice is Bush or Kerry.
Just like in CA the choice was Arnold or Bustamante.
Wake up and smell reality.
Arnold is NO RINO, don't let "uncompromising conservatives" convince you of that. Arnold is very much a Republican.
I would call him a pragmatic fiscal conservative.
Remember the same people who call Arnold a RINO, call Bush a RINO too and prefer people who loudly proclaim themselves "conservatives" but accomplish nothing for the conservative movement, except to set it back, by helping Democrats to get elected.
When it comes right down to it, Reagan wasn't Conservative either. He raised taxes, increased the size of government, raised government spending. About the only Conservative thing he did was that he didn't fund entitlements. Granted he ended the Cold War, but the War On Terror isn't even comparable to the Cold War. Matter of fact, it isn't compartmentalized to just one nation.
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