One-Term Arnie

Schwarzenegger doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting reelected after a remark like this :

Calling the nation’s borders dangerously porous, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised the private “Minuteman” campaign that uses armed volunteers to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S.

Schwarzenegger said in a radio interview that the federal government is failing to secure the border with Mexico, and he cast the hundreds of private citizens who have been patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border since April 1 as a popular response to government inaction.

“I think they’ve done a terrific job,” Schwarzenegger said of the “Minuteman” volunteers, who plan to expand to California in June. “They’ve cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants a huge percentage. So it just shows that it works when you go and make an effort and when you work hard. It’s a doable thing.”

The governor added that, “It’s just that our federal government is not doing their job. It’s a shame that the private citizen has to go in there and start patrolling our borders.”

President Bush has denounced the Minuteman volunteers as vigilantes.

That’s just the latest in a string of failures for the Governator :

After much bluster from both sides, the governor began yielding, shelving certain proposals and signaling that he was open to negotiations on others. He was plainly wounded when teachers, nurses, police, and firefighters?all having separate beefs with Schwarzenegger?began dogging his public appearances and mussing his public image. He fired back with TV ads and rhetoric that were alternately inflammatory and contrite.

Part of the problem seems to be apathy. For all the governor’s efforts, the obtuse matters of redistricting and worker retirement just haven’t stirred Californians much. Ineptitude also played a part; the governor abruptly dropped his support for a measure overhauling the state pension system when it turned out that the ballot initiative could deny death benefits to police and firefighters. The governor capitulated after weeks of bad publicity, including complaints from the widows and orphans of public-safety officers.

But more than anything, Schwarzenegger has suffered from the way in which he tried to challenge the entire power structure in Sacramento: frontally, all at once, with little preparation for the inevitable backlash.

It may be the contradictions are finally catching up with Schwarzenegger. After campaigning as the scourge of special interests and vowing to take money from no one, the governor has collected political cash at a ravenous pace, raising more than $30 million since taking office. (Invitations to a recent Sacramento fundraiser, ?An Evening With Governor Schwarzenegger,? blithely offered access at four levels, starting at $10,000 for a ticket and one photograph and topping out at $100,000 for a seat at the head table.)

I don’t pay as much attention to local and state politics as I should, but I’ve always hated the way Scchwarzenegger sneaked into office on charm and empty rhetoric. It’s nice to see that people are finally starting to see through the celebrity bullshit and see that he’s unprepared to deliver the kind of leadership that he promised during the recall campaign.


posted by greg on April 29, 2005 @ 9:51 am

3 comments

  1. That’s great news, but let’s not forget how easy it is for Charm and empty rhetoric to make up for past deficiencies, especially if the opposition fails to run an even remotely interesting candidate.

    The way I see it, despite Arnold’s increasingly obvious lack of fitness for the Job, the Opposition (Hopefully that’s the Dems) will stillneed to successfully do at least 2 things in order to beat him next year:

    1) As mentioned before, actually run an interesting candidate. If we run another bland policy wonk, or another Davis-esque sycophant, we’re cooked. We need someone passionate, interesting, and charming. Oh, and without the air of corruption that follows so many CA Dem bigwigs these days.

    2) We have got to call out Arnold for his dishonest campaign style. During the recall, he simply “acted” like a leader, allowing himself to become an avatar of whatever people thought he would be. That’s good politics, but he also studiously avoided any instance in whcih he might be successfully challenged.

    The most annoying bit was his insisitance that he wouldn’t debate unless he had the questions in advance. At first the other candidates attempted to call him out, and it looked as though theyr weren’t going to debate him. The moment at which I knew that Arnold was going to win was when all the other candidates capitulated to his demand, and agreed to debate him. That automatically ceded the argument to him, and gave him the appearance of momentum.

    What’s worse, nearly all of his public appearances were scripted solo stops at places like malls. Appearing at malls was particularly effective - he gave the appearance of meeting “the people” in public. Unfortunately, malls are not public places, they’re private businesses with the illusion of public space. The owners of the malls could legally exclude other canddiates and anyone who might protest or otherwise as tough questions.

    If we let him do this crap again, and if we fail to run a candidate that isn’t some mobbed up corrupt party stooge (Which seems to be the only people capable of rising through the California Democratic Party), we wil lose. And deservedly so.

    My point is that I refuse to underestimate the ability of people to stupidly vote for the famous guy, regardless of his record.

    Any ideas on how to win? Disagreements with mine?

    Comment by Ross A Lincoln — April 29, 2005 @ 10:37 am

  2. Great points! I think the core of an effective anti-Arnold campaign can be found in this statement :

    We have got to call out Arnold for his dishonest campaign style. During the recall, he simply “acted” like a leader, allowing himself to become an avatar of whatever people thought he would be.

    Just imagine how devestating a Democratic campaign could be by twisting Arnold’s original campaign against him. I can see the commercials now…

    “Arnold is good at acting like a governor, but it’s time for some real leadership in California.”

    By the time he shows up for the “Super Bowl of debates” he’ll be toast.

    Comment by greg — April 29, 2005 @ 11:14 am

  3. Don’t forget he’s a Republican. They fail upward. If he screws up big enough, he could become Pope.

    Comment by Kip W — May 2, 2005 @ 3:27 pm

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