This Conservative Is Voting For Arnold (Hugh Hewitt Alert!)

Worldnetdaily ^ | 8/13/03 | Hugh Hewitt

[goldstategop]

THE VOICE OF REASON HUGH HEWITT

This Conservative Is Voting For Arnold

Last week Arnold declared his candidacy for governor of California. I was broadcasting at the time, immediately endorsed him, and immediately began to receive a steady flow of mail from Tom McClintock and Bill Simon fans. Tom and Bill are fine guys, and both have been my guests on countless occasions. I endorsed Bill over Dick Riordan last March and stand by that choice. When it comes to elections, I am a single-issue voter: I support the most conservative candidate who has the most realistic chance of winning.

In the Republican California primary of 2002, that was Bill Simon.

In the recall election of 2003, that is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here is my analysis:

Cruz Bustamante may get 30 percent of the vote – the die-hard, dead-end Democrats and the beneficiaries of the iron triangle of special interests that currently control Sacramento: the unions, tribes, trial lawyers. Even if there was only one "movement" conservative in the race – McClintock or Simon – neither of them could get the 30 percent +1 vote needed to win. Schwarzenegger can. Arguing about what-might-have-been doesn't change the facts on the ground.

Schwarzenegger is best positioned to withstand the "Graystopo," as the slime machine Gray has perfected has come to be called. If Schwarzenegger wasn't in the race, all that withering fire would be turned on McClintock or Simon, and it would tear them apart. Schwarzenegger has the sort of celebrity status that lets him stay above a lot of the low blows. Some, like Democratic operative Bob Mulholland's warning of "real bullets," even backfire on the Democrats. This is a major advantage for Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger does great things for the re-election of George W. Bush by immediately putting California into in '04 when Schwarzenegger is sworn in as governor, and Schwarzenegger helps the likely GOP Senate nominee against Barbara Boxer – the conservative Tony Strickland. So Schwarzenegger is closer to Pataki than Reagan, so what? It is a huge advantage to have an ally in the statehouse. The choice to think about with '04 in mind is not Schwarzenegger vs. McClintock or Simon, it is Schwarzenegger vs. Cruz.

The GOP benefits as a whole. Imagine you are Jim DeMint, likely nominee of the GOP for the open U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina, or Lisa Murkowski, incumbent GOP senator in Alaska. Wouldn't it be great to call the Bush people and ask for and get Schwarzenegger to drop into your state for a little fundraiser at $1,000 a head? This is what Bill Clinton does 24x7x365. Schwarzenegger would be a hyperdraw on the fundraising circuit, a crucial component of politics, exceeded only by the president and the vice president. Three such draws is better than two.

Finally, and really most important, is the state of the state. We are losing jobs and talent at an extraordinary rate. The yawning budget shortfall has been covered over with hot checks, and worker's comp, time-off laws and crazy regs are driving hundreds of thousands toward the Arizona and Nevada border. This state of collapse in the Golden State's economy burdens the national economy as well, thus harming the president's re-election effort. The state needs real help from a real businessman. Take a look at Schwarzenegger's tax returns. Remember, he started with nothing except some natural talent. Sort of like the state right now. He can get the job done.

Time for the purists to check their passion at the door and focus on winning. A governor with whom I agree 75 percent of the time – or even 60 percent of the time – is far, far better than a governor with whom I never agree.

A vote for Tom McClintock, Bill Simon or Peter Ueberroth is a vote for Cruz Bustamante.

It really is that simple.

[goldstategop]

I'm pro-life but I know with a State Legislature filled with pro-abort liberals you're not going to get state law altered in this century.

[Roscoe]

Schwarzenegger does great things for the re-election of George W. Bush by immediately putting California into in '04 when Schwarzenegger is sworn in as governor, and Schwarzenegger helps the likely GOP Senate nominee against Barbara Boxer – the conservative Tony Strickland.

Tony would be an extraordinary United States Senator, with decades ahead of him.

[onyx]

Exactly. Why fight losing wars? If Roe v Wade is over turned, I will then fight to outlaw abortion in the state of Kalifornia.

[nopardons]

Hugh and you and many others here know this, understand politics, and unlike the " purists " want what's possible, instead of always yearning for the unatainable.

Great HH article, as usual.

[b9]

>>>adhere to RWR's ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT and not trash one another<<<

From your mouth to all FReeper ears, and that goes for
candidates families, as well as fellow FReepers.

Thank you, onyx.

[tdadams]

We sometimes have to take a less than ideal vehicle to realize them.

Or as my dad used to say, "If you're lost in the desert and a kind stranger offers you a cup of water, you don't ask him 'why not a pint?'"

[Frankss]

-Democrat party see's that Gray can not win

-Gray resigns for the party

-Bustamante becomes the Gov.

-Special election is canceled

[kingu]

How many thousands of times does it have to be said? If Davis resigns, now that the Recall has been certified, the recall question goes away, and it is just an election to determine the replacement candidate. The only unclear point is if Cruz loses the Lt. Gov. spot or not.

[RonDog]

"When it comes to elections, I am a single-issue voter:

I support the most conservative candidate who has the most realistic chance of winning." - Hugh Hewitt

.

If you listen to Hugh Hewitt, or read his WND commentaries,
this PING list is for YOU!
Please post your comments, and BUMP!

(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know)

[Bluntpoint]

I'm expecting Rush to throw in the towel and jump on the bandwagon any day now.

The day after Arnold's first policy speech that interweaves golf analogies.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

In Politics...

WINNING is everything.

REPUBLICANS do it with VOTES.

DEMOCRATS do it with China Army Money.

[RonDog]

See also the poll which has been running right here on Free Republic (hardly the "home of RINOs.")

For several days now, the results have been CONSISTENTLY pro-Arnold, almost two-to-one:

Question ...

---

Who would you support for Governor of Califonia?

McClintock
502 votes - 31%

Simon
135 votes - 8%

Schwarzenegger
851 votes - 53%

Other
91 votes - 5%

1,579 votes total

[RonDog]

How many thousands of times does it have to be said?

If Davis resigns, now that the Recall has been certified, the recall question goes away, and it is just an election to determine the replacement candidate.

The only unclear point is if Cruz loses the Lt. Gov. spot or not.

In the post-"Florida 2000/Lautenberg in NJ" world where RATs fight their battles in the COURTS rather than at the ballot box, your trust in the words of the California constitution - widely shared on this forum - may be misplaced.

See also THIS depressing thread:

Question...What if Gray Out Resigns before 10/7
			Posted by Positive On 08/11/2003 9:31 PM PDT with 65 comments Self | 8/11/2003 | Self

[eureka!]

Building on your post at No. 7, Arnold, like Reagan, will mature. My bets are he will grow more conservative in time. I sure did....

[PhiKapMom]

I support the most conservative candidate who has the most realistic chance of winning." - Hugh Hewitt

Now that is the single issue I can support!

[RonDog]

</blockquote? You got THAT right!

See also:

Peach Buzz: Hammer has a 'Fever' (M.C. Hammer voting for Ahnold)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 8.13.03

Posted on 08/13/2003 5:57 AM PDT by mhking

Dancer/rapper M.C. "U Can't Touch This" Hammer, at Cumberland Mall on Monday promoting his ABC Family revival of "Dance Fever," said, though he's a registered Democrat, he'll vote for the aforementioned Schwarzenegger (um, the real one) for California governor.

"You get two for one," said Hammer, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. "He's a Republican, but you can tell he's socially liberal. And his wife is a Kennedy! She'll have an influence. And as for lack of political experience, look at Gray Davis. He has a ton of it. So much for that!"

CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread

Dancer/rapper M.C. "U Can't Touch This" Hammer

Not quite in the "typical" CRP demographic, eh?

[ohioWfan]

When it comes to elections, I am a single-issue voter: I support the most conservative candidate who has the most realistic chance of winning.

THIS is the key......if, as conservatives, we want PROGRESS to be made, we need to vote for the most electable conservative candidate........even if he/she is not absolutely conservative. Otherwise we end up with more dims in office......

Look at the poll numbers. Simon, et al don't have a shot against Bustamanti (sp?). It's got to be Arnold............even Rush knows that.

That's why I love Hugh.......he's sticks to his conservative ideals, but he's so clearheaded about it.

[RonDog]

See also:

Mark Steyn: The Gubernator?
The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 08/10/03 | Mark Steyn
Posted on 08/09/2003 5:43 PM PDT by Pokey78

Profile: Arnold Schwarzenegger

The best scene in The Last Action Hero (1993) was a clip from Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. Arnold Schwarzenegger, edited into the 1948 monochrome and taking dear Larry's role as the eponymous ditherer, starts off the soliloquy, cuts it short and opens fire on the castle, all the while puffing on his stogie. As the unseen narrator puts it, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark - and Hamlet is takin' out the trash!"

A week ago, it looked as if the roles had been reversed. The conventional wisdom was that Ah-nuld wasn't man enough for California politics. Instead of saying "Hasta la vista, Gray Davis!" and blowing the punk out of the Governor's office, he was nancying around in doublet and hose whimpering, "To be or not to be, that is the question". He'd been scared off. His Kennedy wife didn't want him to run, and, besides, too many people had too much dirt on too many of the sexual perks your big-time Hollywood star avails himself of over the years. He was going to wiggle out, no doubt promising that "Ah'll be back, maybe next election, or the one after, if my wife will let me."

And so not for the first time the experts underestimated Schwarzenegger. On Wednesday's Tonight Show, he announced that he was in. Something is rotten in the State of California - and Arnie is takin' out the trash! Collyvurnja, here he comes!

Whether or not he'll win, nobody can say for certain: the rules of the recall election are as whimsical as a sudden-death gameshow round. The standard line is that it's a "circus", but pre-Arnie it was more of a freak show, filled by various unsatisfying midgets: the pornographer Larry Flynt; the diminutive ex-sitcom-player Gary Coleman; a bounty hunter from Sacramento; the extravagantly-endowed self-proclaimed "Love Goddess" Angelyne (she's a one-woman circus, if only in the sense that she has a big top); and the wannabe celebrity, obscure populist and rumoured fourth Gabor sister Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, best remembered in Britain (if at all) as Bernard Levin's ex-squeeze. But no matter how many little clowns pour out of the miniature car, it is the entry of the muscleman that has made this a circus worth seeing.

Whatever happens, he has played his opening hand at a crowded table brilliantly. Arnold has wanted to be Governor of California for two decades, but October 7 represents his best shot. For one thing, there's no primary election in a recall campaign. In a normal election, Arnie wouldn't stand a chance of getting his watered-down "moderate Republicanism" past the death-before-electability crowd who dominate GOP primaries in California. He's unsound on almost everything that matters to them. On the other hand, that supposedly puts him closer to the average voter...

CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread

[Valin]

I believe all he's saying is Arnold is not a conservative. I doubt anyone here would say he is(I'm talking mainly about'social issues')
A small word of caution speaking as someone from Mn. where we've had 12 years of governors who are "fiscal conservatives and social moderates". Don't expect much.
OTOT I've always picked my candidates with this in mind,
"I support the rightward most viable candidate"
W F Buckley jr.

[DLfromthedesert]

Better Ahnold than Cruz. Unless you're longing to be the next state to join Mexico.