I haven’t the time to read this entire thread, so, if I’m being repetitious of others’ comments, my apologies.
Were I a California citizen, I would vote for McClintock in a heartbeat, and it really saddens me to see otherwise-sensible FReepers supporting the likes of Schwarzenegger (more often than not, as the ‘lesser of the evils’).
Under no circumstances could I pull the lever next to Mr. S’s name -- except perhaps if he were someday running against the likes of Stalin/Hitler/Clinton (he or she).
Boiling it down to three simplistic (yet weighty) reasons:
(1) Mr. S is nothing more than an ego-inflated political opportunist (not unlike most politicians, but I have never knowingly voted for any of that type). And he has a ‘Kennedy wife’ to boot (a glaring negative, in my book).
(2) From all accounts, Mr. S knew virtually nothing about issues troubling the state of California (let alone the country of which it is a part) until he decided to throw his hat into the ring. I saw and heard several interviews with him early on in which he answered absolutely no questions of substance (and appeared to have no knowledge which would provide him a solid answer anyway). I believe he has since surrounded himself with many ‘advisors’ whose politically-opportune opinions are being funneled into his campaign rhetoric. No substance obtained through years of political observation or activism. Simply meaningless, pandering verbiage.
Any fifty-six year old man who deems himself worthy of holding an office as important as the governorship of California, and yet hasn’t taken the time, or made the effort, over those fifty-six years to be informed about the problems that face that state must surely believe that chutzpah and ego count more than dedication and character. Not so in joanie’s book of ‘a man’s worth’.
(3) These un-retractable, very telling statements by Mr. Schwarzenegger that ought to be burned into the brain of every conservative who favors the idea of electing a ‘political outsider’ (most of whom are ‘outsiders’ in name only, or they wouldn’t enjoy the support of their back-stage puppet masters), and who believes that Arnold will be ‘the people’s governor’:
‘We spent one year wasting time [on the impeachment and trial of Bill Clinton] because there was a human failure. I was ashamed to call myself a Republican during that period.’ [Schwarzenegger also stated that he would ‘never forgive’ the Republican Party for successfully impeaching Clinton].
‘In reality, I'm for gun control. I'm a peace-loving guy.’
‘At the moment, they're dealing with it [cloning] by putting the religious spin on it. .... There are some people who are religiously fanatic, that feel uncomfortable with it. But I think that's also a mistake.’
‘I have no sexual standards in my head that say this is good or this is bad. 'Homosexual' -- that only means to me that he enjoys sex with a man and I enjoy sex with a woman. It's all legitimate to me.’
I’m tired of listening to leftists conveniently dressed in the garb of conservatives. If he looks like a leftist, walks like a leftist, and talks like a leftist (especially when he is in the company of others of like mind, and believes that no conservatives are within earshot), he doesn’t get my vote -- no matter how loud he talks, how craftily his words are scripted, or how insistent he is that those (carefully calculated for public consumption) words should be pleasing to the ear.
~ joanie 