There are many people on this forum that will grimace at your comments here. Actually, they are quite funny in light of my defense of Schwarzenegger. I have probably been his most ardent defender on this forum.
The moment he announced on the 'Tonight Show' that he was going to run, I knew it was a done deal. The guy is immensely popular. His political views were secondary, and I knew they would be. I was not an ardent supporter of his likely policies. I figured the guy would do some things I'd like, but many that I'd detest.
He has lived up to that. He did stop the licenses for illegal alliens dead in it's tracks. It was slated to take effect January 1, 2004, if he hadn't stepped in. (I believe that is accurate.) He did get a small correction through with regard to state comp, but it wasn't nearly the fix we needed.
I defended him, because I wanted folks to please stick to issues concerning things he had done, not what they contended he would do, when there wasn't much we could do about that.
He has been a dismal failure at reducing state spending. Some fault him for a $15 billion dollar bond he floated, which the voters approved of. I thought it was reasonable for him to do it, since major bond debt was coming due and he was pretty much presented with it before he could do much else.
After that bond measure, he could have cut spending. He didn't. In fact, his detractors could honestly say he allowed the budget to expand even further. Not only that, he helped facilitate a massive conservancy in the millions of acres in the High Sierra country. That was a extremely unfortunate. I stand with the High Sierra and surrounding community people, that opposed that conservency. Frankly, it made me quite angry. Land rights are fundimental in this nation. Schwarzenegger should have known better.
He's had time to show his true colors, and I think he's fair game today. Over the next six months, I expect to see him self-destruct when it comes to the 2005 budget, and Californias continuing fiscal crisis.
We shall see. I don't see any circumstances that would get me to support him during the 2006 primary. I only wish his last run had to filter through the primary process.