Reagan was writing policy materials and active in politics before then. Have you read any of those writings? None of them are as shallow as Arnold's speeches which was my point about Reagan's relative preparation and ability.
Could you please give me some source on this? I wasn't aware that Karl Rove was even talking to Arnie?
I didn't say Rove directly, I said "the Rove/Parsky machine" as an analogy for the "moderate" CAGOP leadership, and the incredible pressure they placed upon the entire party apparatus in support of Arnold contrasted with the deliberately destructive controls they placed on Bill Simon's campaign when he ran for governor or the deprivation of any support for Tom McClintock's candidacy when he ran for controller. If you want a discussion of that, I can supply it. Rove had a great deal to do with Parsky getting that job and has done nothing to change that.
You missed what I said. He is not a career politician so he doesn't have to worry about the next election to have a job. If he wants to go on "live" television and cut them a new backside, he can. It's hard to threatened someone with nothing.
You are right I did miss that, but it is because we have very different impressions of Arnold's character. I actually shared your thesis before the election, to the point that I speculated on this forum that Arnold might take a dive at the end to kill the recall (on the belief that he didn't really care to actually DO the relatively boring job of being governor) or because he just didn't want to deal with the dirt when it finally came. I misjudged the depth of Arnold's ambitions. He has a desperate need for adulation. He really does want to help kids and take care of people, so it WILL hurt when he's accused of depriving children of anything, even when it's only cutting out a bunch of fat cat consultants. Didn't you see him in the crowd after his acceptance speech? The man was borderline out of control! I do think media attacks will faze him emotionally, and, if the mediots can ignore Bush on TV, do you really think they will give Arnold that much time compared to their nightly undermining of hardship stories?
Congrats on your book. But the environment is a true back burner topic when the state is taxing businesses into Nevada and the coffers are multi, multi millions in the hole.
There you are flat out wrong in the case of many manufacturing operations that are leaving, and especially agriculture, which is the largest industry in California (and with it follow food processing, industrial construction, genetic crop research...). The cost of regulation exceeds the differential cost of wages and taxes in many cases, particularly when it destroys a critical supply chain or access to a neccary resource, such as water. Further, you would be surprised at the degree to which the environmental arena has manipulated the real estate prices that prohibit many companies from expanding here and forces them to move. Had you said "workmans compensation" I might have agreed with you in terms of its immediate severity (especially with regard to construction), but that one is easier to fix. On the environmental front, Arnold portends to make things MUCH worse.
There are way more important problems so the environment isn't on the list yet. Give it time, and it probably will. But it doesn't make since to worry about it if no one lives there because they can't afford it. It becomes a wilderness again.
No, it becomes a very expensive problem, and if you don't believe it you should check out the third world. There are some truly desperate habitat conditions in rural California and more that portend serious problems, paradoxically because of environmentalists, who are hell-bent upon destroying this nation. Ignore land management at your peril.