Posted on 09/13/2003 1:37:18 PM PDT by snopercod
p>The Recall: It isn't every day that someone of Arnold Schwarzenegger's caliber gives up a highly successful career to run for public office. Californians should take advantage of the opportunity.
If they don't, we fear the worst. The state is being driven off a cliff by a one-party government led by second-rate hacks. Next month's recall election may be the only chance to turn things around.
No need to go through the problems — the cavernous deficit, the porous border, the business exodus and so on and so forth. But you have to be here (and IBD is headquartered in Los Angeles) to realize how badly the state is governed.
It isn't just that Davis is incompetent — letting spending run amok, choking in the face of an energy crisis, condoning one anti-business, job-killing scheme after another.
What do you expect from someone who's spent his entire adult life in state government — and in mostly second-rung jobs at that?
It's that Davis is also corrupt. He spends much of his time raising money that he uses to smear anyone who's even thinking about opposing him. And he sells favors to the highest special-interest bidders.
It's no coincidence, for example, that prison guards are getting the biggest pay hike in state government after contributing more — $3.4 million — than any other public employee union to Davis' campaigns. Over five years, they're getting a 37% hike — at a time of severe budget crisis.
The lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante, may not be as venal. But he's every bit as dull and perhaps even less competent.
He owes much of his political success to an Average Joe image and a certain vagueness about where he really stands. But as the clock ticks down to Oct. 7, and the need to nail down liberal votes gets serious, the veil is lifting.
He is part of an administration that presided over a tripling of car-license fees and workers' comp rates. Now he's pushing socialistic monstrosities like mandatory, employer-provided health insurance, state regulation of the oil industry and ever-higher income taxes on the state's most productive citizens.
That he doesn't seem to realize — or care about — the devastation such measures will bring on jobs and the economy is reason enough to disqualify him.
No sane person facing such a costly raft of tax hikes, mandates and new rules as Bustamante has proposed would choose to expand or build a new business in the Golden State.
California is the world's fifth largest economy, with nearly $1.4 trillion in output. But it won't hold that position for long if its best and brightest keep leaving in droves — as they have in recent years, thanks in large part to Bustamante's and Davis' stunning incompetence.
Needless to say, Bustamante and now Davis are all for the new law that lets illegal aliens get driver's licenses, thereby further opening our borders to terrorists. (Davis at first opposed the idea. In a classic flip-flop, he reversed field after the recall movement gathered steam and it became clear he'd need Latino votes to survive).
Most residents sadly agree that California isn't what it used to be. What we fear is that after five years of Davis and another three of Bustamante, it may no longer be even recognizable.
Maybe that's the idea: Despite many opportunities to do so, Bustamante has refused to denounce the credo of a Chicano organization in which he was once active: "For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing."
Contrast all this with the engaging, inclusive and well-rounded Schwarzenegger, an immigrant who came to America with nothing and achieved everything he's put his mind to.
He's been a success in several fields, including bodybuilding, business and acting.
No dummy, he put himself through college and has written four books, including a 736-page encyclopedia of bodybuilding.
No dilettante, he has served presidents and sponsored a successful initiative to fund after-school programs for disadvantaged kids.
No shrinking violet, he married into America's royal family and attracts and holds his own with our best and brightest.
No quitter, he'll keep at the problem until it's solved.
How many Americans, let alone politicians, can set a better example for California's large and growing immigrant population?
They say Schwarzenegger has no experience in Sacramento. We say hallelujah. What's needed there now is new, positive thinking based on real-world experience and common sense.
Schwarzenegger has both.
Our admiration for Schwarzenegger is in no way a reflection on the other candidate who'd also get the job done — State Sen. Tom McClintock. We've watched him for years, marveling at his grasp of the issues, impressed by his principled stands and wincing at the narrow defeats he's suffered in other attempts at statewide office.
But the conventional wisdom seems to be that McClintock, a no-nonsense conservative, will not likely be elected governor in a state in which there are a million more Democrats than Republicans.
We expect him to graciously step aside for the front-running Schwarzenegger when the time is right.
As for the more moderate (but still conservative) Schwarzenegger, it's beyond us why someone with so much going for him would want to step into such a mess.
But then, we're not Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And neither, voters surely must know, is Gray Davis or Cruz Bustamante.
I saw ElkGroveDan mention on another thread that he was a personal friend of Tom McClintock... perhaps he went to the convention with him and would be willing to describe the events for us less fortunate Freepers? :-)
You mean ... NO ONE covered his speech? Hahaha ...
I was going to go (drive), but because the legislature went until 3:00 am Friday, there was no way I was going to get up early saturday and drive 6 hours, and then do it again Sunday night. So I signed off my proxy vote to McClintock's people and decided to make it a weekend at home with the kids.
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