Replies

Ahnold's backers have insisted for the last month that Ahnold's pro-choice beliefs do not matter because the California governor has no control over abortion. But Dana Rohrbacher in a Human Events magazine interview admitted today that that claim is a lie:

Q: On his website, Arnold says, "I support the state's current family planning programs, and as governor would make no changes to this policy." The state of California currently pays for abortions with tax dollars.
ROHRABACHER: Right.
Q: You don't agree with that, do you?
ROHRABACHER: I don't, no.
Q: I mean, isn't that an egregious thing?
ROHRABACHER: I don't agree with having abortions, period.
Q: But isn't it egregious for a Republican candidate for governor to say, "I'm a fiscal conservative, but I'm going to tax people to pay for other people's abortions?"
ROHRABACHER: I would vote that way [against funding abortions] in a heartbeat. That makes Arnold different on this issue than I am, but he's better on this issue than Gray Davis and Bustamante.

How can Ahonold be better when he agrees with them on the issue? Why would true conservatives want McClintock to step aside for someone whose campaign tells such basic lies?
--Raoul

If, and that's a big if, I lived in California, I wouldn't be able to vote for a Republican or anybody else that favored taking my money to use for abortions.

That would be one of those lines I wouldn't cross. Until then my view was I'd support McClintock up to the last minute and then go with Arnold if the polls showed him in trouble.

Of course none of this matters since I live in Ct except to AS who should do his best to avoid making his views on taking money from taxpayers to fund abortions well known.

Davis has made pro choice one of his signature issues. I don't think Arnold cares that much about it, and perhaps he would oppose partial birth abortion. In any event, it is a non issue in a California state election anyway you cut it, since it has been taken over by SCOTUS, and California will be one of the last places in the land to put any restrictions on abortion in any event. After all, in California, it is all about me, to wit, the culture is quite sybaritic. It's the weather thing, and the Hollywood thing, and the Bay Area thing, and the High Tech thing (a loci of anomic libertarian impulses), and some other things. Trundling out abortion in this election strikes me as onanistic.