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This is a good piece which was posted on one of the threads yesterday.

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Opinion piece - The Ventura Star

GOP wrong about Schwarzenegger; McClintock better
By Andrew Russo
August 29, 2003

Arnold Schwarzenegger's failure to move beyond the 22 percent to 25 percent range in most recent California surveys is sending the Republican Party's country-club establishment into panic. Schwarzenegger, after all, fits that mold perfectly. A so-called "fiscal conservative," but "social moderate," the Terminator was supposed to be the great white hope of the comatose California GOP. We all know true conservative Republicans can't win general elections in the Golden State, so the Republican rank-and-file were supposed to play good soldiers, follow the lead of the moneyed party elite, and joyfully climb aboard the Arnold Express for the only train back to the statehouse.

Well, as is usually the case, the GOP establishment was wrong. Its great white hope isn't quite catching on. Between his questionable choice of advisers (one a prominent Democrat who wants to scuttle Proposition 13) and his liberal views on a host of issues, ranging from abortion, gun control and gay marriage, to his support of new high-spending big government programs (i.e., Proposition 49), the Terminator is a hard pill for the hard core to swallow. And, if the polls are correct, they're not swallowing.

The Los Angeles Times poll showed Schwarzenegger drawing only 39 percent of the Republican vote. This despite the fact he's a household name, a movie celebrity in a state where Hollywood is king, the massive media buildup prior to his announcement ("will he or won't he?"), and the subsequent Arnoldmania that has swept the state. Yet, fewer than four in 10 Republicans in California are biting.

This fact alone proves once again that the Republican elite is all wet and that it's the grass-roots Republicans -- the precinct walkers and envelope-lickers -- who are the real representatives of the state GOP. It proves conclusively that one endorsement from the California Republican Assembly is worth a thousand endorsements from the Lincoln Club of Orange County.

Now, the party bigwigs are desperate to save Schwarzenegger. As Cruz Bustamante roars ahead of the Terminator, are the bigwigs having second thoughts about the actor-turned-politician they have put their money on? Have they seen the light and are they perhaps reconsidering?

No way. This gang is temperamentally incapable of admitting error. They have decided instead that the only way to salvage their political mistake is to demand that the real Republican in the race for governor, state Sen. Tom McClintock, drop out and toss a life preserver to their golden boy.

Yet, why is Arnold's weakness the fault of McClintock?

Is it McClintock's fault that Schwarzenegger's negatives are almost as high as his positives?

The truth is that voters are beginning to recognize that the Hollywood megastar is, to use Texas terminology, all hat and no cattle. Any individual who seeks to be governor of California but has to seclude himself for 10 days with consultants and counselors to tell him what to think simply cannot be taken seriously. You just can't cram for the governorship of the nation's largest state (and one that's suffering the worst financial crisis in history) like you would for a 10th-grade history exam.

McClintock doesn't need anyone to tell him what to think or what to say. Motivated by a strong Jeffersonian philosophy of limited government and with a 20-year track record of carefully dissecting the problems confronting California, McClilntock is perhaps overqualified to be governor. And, look what his dark-horse candidacy has accomplished in less than a month:

With a limited campaign budget (and no personal fortune to pour into the contest), a small staff and no box office sensations to his credit, McClintock is quickly becoming the candidate to watch in the recall race.

Doubling his voter strength in the Times poll in just a few weeks, McClintock is generating the kind of enthusiasm and excitement among rank-and-file Republicans not seen since Ronald Reagan's first campaign for governor in 1966.

Actually outraising Democrat presidential candidate Howard Dean on the Internet, the insurgent Thousand Oaks senator is attracting the support of Californians fed up with the deceit and doubletalk of conventional politicians and seeking a breath of fresh air. McClintock offers them that and more: He's an authentic populist who, if elected, will shake California's political establishment to the core.

And, isn't that what the Gray Davis recall is all about? A true populist uprising against the same kind of corrupt politicians beholden to special interests that Hiram Johnson, father of the recall provision, railed against in the early 1900s.

With an agenda that is simple and direct, McClintock is rallying Californians fed up with high taxes, out-of-control spending, a laughable public school system and stifling bureaucracy. He is offering hope to voters in a state where cynicism reigns. He is speaking truth to power. And, in the year of the unprecedented recall election in this, the trendsetter of states, that could just be the ticket to victory.

-- Andrew Russo, of Salinas, is a California political consultant and former executive director of The Lincoln Club of Monterey County.

With an agenda that is simple and direct, McClintock is rallying Californians fed up with high taxes, out-of-control spending, a laughable public school system and stifling bureaucracy. He is offering hope to voters in a state where cynicism reigns. He is speaking truth to power. And, in the year of the unprecedented recall election in this, the trendsetter of states, that could just be the ticket to victory.

What a fantastic piece.

Thank you for posting it.

Thank you CofD. That's more like it, moral-principle wise.

Too bad the monied-interest connections aren't explored in the piece beyond the class-warrior rheoric of "country-club establishment."

The situation that helped precipitate our state's financial woes, as one can infer by Senator McClintock's charges of corrupt connections being the justification for vacating the energy contracts, involves vested interests who are happy with Doofus, and are perhaps identifiable from out of the few GOP who fought to keep this grassroots revolt from even qualifying and who now say Ah-nold is our only hope. Yeah -- their only hope.