Posted on 03/04/2007 9:18:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the three leading Republican presidential candidates should stick to the political center and avoid being pushed too far to the right to win the GOP nomination.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will stand a better chance in the 2008 general election as moderates, Schwarzenegger said Saturday. He visited Columbus for the 19th annual Arnold Sports Festival, a three-day event that features 39 events, including 14 Olympic sports.
"I'm very proud that the Republican Party has three candidates that some conservatives feel like they are not conservative enough, because that feels like they have a good chance of winning the overall election," said Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican himself. "The people in America are in the center, they're not extremists."
Schwarzenegger's push to move California's presidential primary to Feb. 5 from June could give the state much greater influence in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes.
When asked if he'd like to see the U.S. Constitution amended to allow foreign-born citizens to run for president, the Austrian-born governor joked, "It's part of comprehensive immigration reform."
Schwarzenegger said he hasn't considered what he'll do after term limits force him to leave office in 2010, but he's not inspired by returning to acting.
Schwarzenegger's visit to Columbus also gave him a chance to meet Sabah Mahdi, a 49-year-old Iraqi bodybuilder who has dreamed of meeting Schwarzenegger for 33 years. Difficulty getting a passport and other problems have prevented Mahdi from leaving his war-torn country for previous festivals.
Awaiting the the inevitable flames and accusations of selfishness because I wont compromise on abortion and accept Rudy..
This comes as no surprise to anyone. I don't understand people saying "We told you so"--who here thought Arnold was a hardcore conservative?
Believe what you will, he stole a Recall with his Q factor and not his IQ, has ran up the debt, pushed thru big chunks of the dem agenda, now sticks his knife in the back of the Ca GOP under the pretense of saving it when all he has done is use and abuse it, imo.
You like debt and socialism, move here.
But is it REALLY a shock that a Republican who became governor of California is not denouncing the socialist tendencies so popular there?
Besides, I live in Massachusetts, we have enough of both to go around.
I'm with you on this one.
Arnie moved left, not to the center, and now we Californians again will pay the price for political expediency.
You suffer some but how would you like to see any hope for this state to ever get its stuff back together, short of a complete and total collapse which has only been forestalled and is inevitable, even with aRnie at the helm.
Not so many years ago this state had a chance to regain its sanity, all that is left now is the endless bashing by folks like you who seem to be quite complacent as to how this nation is moving left and with folks supposedly on the right help.
doesn't that concern you at all?
Arnold said that? I'm shocked I tell ya! Shocked!
Imagine Mr Welcome Wagon for Mexico and all points South Schwarzenegger saying such as that.
Well, run for office - and may you be successful at it. One could argue that major re-tuning of the heads is possible ONLY as a result of a major setback or collapse. Even 9/11, although it produced a burst, was not sufficiently powerful to make that burst permanent. And undoing the 60s would take nothing short of a permanent burst.
just curious, did you emigrate from a socialist country?
why embrace it and encourage its advancement here?
If only Arnold would heed this advice and return from the far-left.
I'd be interested in some evidence for your assertion that "socialist tendencies" have broad popular appeal in California.
From the ussr. and it does not need either embraces or encouragement. I'm so much of a right-winger that even my nasal septum is deviated to the right - but people would not vote for me, and I'm smart enough to recognize at least that much. As Berthold Brecht once said in another context, a government could seek a different people. Ditto here. You have existing electorate, warts and all. What that electorate is, determines what could be done with it. If you do not like it - go and seek another electorate.
Since in every presidential race since 1988 the Democrat has won by as much as FOURTEEN percentage points; since it was one of the first states to legalize domestic partnerships for gays (expanded by the legislature, who were voted in by the electorate); and since it has a liberal democrat-controlled state legislature and keeps sending Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein to Washington, California has fooled me into ignoring it as a conservative stronghold. So sorry.
You forget history over the last 26 years in California, including electing RR to two terms as Governor and 2 as potus. The cost of living was reasonable in Ca. during that period of time. Now it is nearly impossible for young families to live in desirable areas near the coast. A new couple starting out with combined income of $100,000 a year can simply not afford to buy homes starting at $500,000 or more in the coastal towns and cities. And irresponsible governments are just making it worse. Calif. is referred to frequently here on FR as the part of the left coast, a very appropriate description.
You forget RR governorship, in which he, among other things, supported legalized abortion.
The cost of living was reasonable in Ca. during that period of time. Now it is nearly impossible for young families to live in desirable areas near the coast. A new couple starting out with combined income of $100,000 a year can simply not afford to buy homes starting at $500,000 or more in the coastal towns and cities. And irresponsible governments are just making it worse. Calif. is referred to frequently here on FR as the part of the left coast, a very appropriate description.
Yeah--I was saying just that, actually.
PS--the Democrats being in charge of the state legislature for 48 of the last 50 years doesn't exactly sell me on the idea that Cali is misrepresented as Liberalville, either.
The sad fact is the bulk of the electorate wherever you go in the US is educated in public schools that indoctrinate more than educate. but thanks for the advice.
when parties actually align themselves with candidates that turn off more voters than they excite, is the candidate to be forgiven for then continuing to further alienate them by by pushing the other parties agenda zealously?
California is an experiment gone bad,, and not even a movie actor can change that, and now, has apparently given up trying to..
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