Posted on 11/07/2004 9:48:11 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burst into the Mexican restaurant to a round of applause. Behind him trailed Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto, the ostensible star of this campaign event. But voters only had eyes for Schwarzenegger.
As the governor wove through the Vacaville eatery, he tried to turn the spotlight on Podesto, who was running a hard-fought race for state Senate. At one point, he grabbed Podesto's leaflets and began handing them to customers himself. But they only handed them back with a pen for autographs.
Just before roaring off in his black Ford Excursion, he gripped Podesto's shoulders and said: "I hope to see you in Sacramento."
A week later, Podesto - along with every single other Republican Schwarzenegger backed to unseat a legislative Democrat - lost. And Republicans learned that Schwarzenegger is not going to lead their party to political dominance in California.
It was just a year ago that Republicans, fresh from Schwarzenegger's win in a historic recall, were predicting a revolution in their party's fortunes. Gone, they said, were the days of irrelevance in Democrat-dominated California, where in 2002 Republicans lost every statewide race they ran in.
But as the lunch crowd in Vacaville intuitively grasped, Schwarzenegger is eclipsing, not elevating, his party.
As he zoomed around California in the election's final days, popping into restaurants, intoning on the radio and pumping up rallies, it became clear whose agenda Schwarzenegger was promoting: His own.
As he put it at a post-election news conference: "I will create the theme of which way we are going to go in this state. It will be me, from this office here. And the Republicans have to support me and the Democrats have to support me."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
The guy's pure ambition. Nothing wrong with that.
"I was not elected and sent to Sacramento by the people of California to represent the Republican party," Schwarzenegger recently told a radio interviewer. "I was elected to be the people's governor. ... It's an ideological situation where I sometimes am, you know, have a different point of view than the party itself has."
He has raised no taxes and promotes big business. But he also made almost no permanent cuts to the budget, borrowed heavily, signed some tough environmental bills and recently selected a new finance chief who once advocated letting communities give heroin to drug addicts.
What? Self optimizing is now bad? Good for Arnold.
Really? What if his ambition consists of gun control, special rights for homosexuals, wasting taxpayer dollars on ill-advised big-government borrowing schemes?
Anyhting wrong with that?
We in CA better wake up. Arnold is not a good Gov. He is NOT a republican, and he is full of it when he says he doesn't owe the party anything. He owes the people of the party all, otherwise he wouldn't be in office. He had a duty to help Jones and Podesta win and he did nothing. He also had to be dragged reluctantly to help Bush. He thinks we can't think for ourselves and also, think about this, we just saw what celebrities are like, we rejected them in the Dems party why would we embrace this guy just because he is an actor. He is no Ron Reagan either.
Republican leaders?
WHAT REPUBLICAN LEADERS? ROTFLMAO You mean somebody actually found someone claiming to be a California republican leader? Where's the imperical evidence of this?
The idea that Schwarzenegger was going to swing this state to the right, was ludacrist. He's not a right-leaning individual himself. And of course this must be big news to those 'republican leaders'.
Schwarzenegger is only preferable if he is running against the likes of Bustamante or a Hillary Clinton. What should scare the bajeebers our of us all, is a 2008 scenario that see him running against Hillary.
If that happens, I recommend 90% plus of Republicans just stay home. There's not a chance in hell that sees me voting for Schwarzenegger for president of the United States.
I like you more and more all the time. Don't tell anyone, ok?
Your secret is save with me. Heh heh heh...
Please tell me you're simply ill and tomorrow, when you're feeling better, you'll return to the Austrian camp.
Well Dan you can always vote the candidate of the Democrat party against Arnold instead and make your vote count.
Quit injecting logic into the mix...
Your like a rain on a wedding day...
Fine, don't like Arnold? Recall him and get Gray Davis back in there. That will really further the Republican agenda.
Good to see you again DW. Still have a couple of your stickers on the wall of my garage :-)
Actually I was happy to vote for one of the best conservatives I have had the pleasure of knowing when Arnold ran. No need to vote for a Dem.
It is the mentality that we must take whatever liberal crap is shoved down our throats by liberal Republicans that has destroyed much of the once motivated Republican base in this country.
How about this, we all quit voting for gun grabbing, tax and spend, enviro-whacko liberals no matter what they have checked on their voter registration cards?
Heh heh heh... well I've never actually been in the Austrian camp. I've tried to be a realist concerning the situation. When it comes to slamming him for stuff he hasn't done yet, I've defended him. When he does stuff like the land grab reserve, I've thought he was an idiot and said so.
No surprise there!
Look, I didn't like Kerry because he was a self-involved jerk. Arnold is the same way. It doesn't matter what party they are from, self-invloved jerks stand for nobody's interests but their own. There is no need to change the constitution for this a**hole but I could have told you that right after I read his Oui Magazine interview in 1977 and I was only 14 then.
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