Just because when he last entered the Governor’s mansion in 1975, he succeeded one actor turned Republican who left the Golden State in sound fiscal shape, doesn’t mean that another one will.
Arnold is, alas, not Ronald Reagan.
The Internet home for American gay conservatives.
I’m still trying to figure out what CA’landers thought ol Arnie was going to do for the Bear State? Arnie’s best moment was attending Reagan’s funeral and looking solemn… everything else, not too great eh? Amateurs make bad politicians.
I am truly sick to my stomach right now.
I hate to think a disaster is on it’s way, but I am having a hard time being positive right now.
Thank you you truly stupid Californians and you idiotic and ignorant east coast transplants for driving in the nails to our coffin!
You not only put Brown in, you put Newsome in and you removed the only thing that kept the state from going crazy on taxes, *Ahem* “fees” and idiotic laws!
I truly hate you all right now, and if/when this state starts to burn not only will I level the blame directly at you, I will bring the marsh mellows and watch it all fall.
Sorry Stone, I’m more worried about the collateral damage CA will do to the rest of the union.
*Btw* just to be clear I hate the idiots who put The far left in office. Not you guys, I like most everyone on this site or am rather indifferent otherwise…
Unless you voted these people in… Then the above statement stands.
=)
@Livewire – I am as well, and I am sorry for it.
But the very notion that “Gruesome” Newsome and Moonbeam Brown are in control of the state sickens me to no end.
It will not end well.
I keep wanting to compare the far left to Somali Pirates.
The are experts at seizing control “by any means necessary”, but not one of them knows how to drive the boat.
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#1: “Amateurs make bad politicians.”
Ummm, NO. The Founding Fathers intended all politicians to be “amateurs.” The problem is that everyone other than true conservatives (Democrats, liberals, statists, socialists, RINOs, “moderates,” etc.) make bad politicians. THAT is why Arnold is a failed governor.
In the black, Sean.
OTOH, I think Lex Luthor had the right idea in the first Superman movie. Wasn’t moonbeam Governour then too?
Michigan-Matt:
Did you manage to get Michigan into the hands of professional moderate Republican politicians? If so, how long should we wait for the miracle of rejuvenation and rise of Michigan to hallowed glory?
It seems counter-intuitive that California, a state obsessed with youth, elects such old fossils to positions of power. Maybe all those children are looking for mommy and daddy figures… but the kind of mommy and daddy that will give them a trust fund so they don’t have to work for a living. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Babs fit the bill.
California is more addicted to government than any of its sister states.
When a state decides it needs complicated government solutions to cosmetic “problems” while ignoring rot in the fundamentals, that state is already around the bend.
Arnie was the governor and legislature was the legislature and California has massive problems. Like all addicts, rehab is not an option until the patient is ready, willing and asks for it himself. California is addicted to government on the one hand and being destroyed by government on the other.
When a fish can destroy a huge agricultural region and illegal immigrants can destroy medical emergency access and retired government functionaries can draws state pensions that make them kings, you have to wonder what the state is smoking. Somehow, the majority of people of California have become gamers and exchanged common economic fundamentals for social engineering.
I think that when the sewers back up in the Emerald City, it is not glitter and pixie dust that covers the terrain.
I am sorry about the state of the state of California. Like New York, I expect them to come cup in hand to Washington for some of the funny money to “bail them out” which is actually a “fix” for a short trip until they come back for more. And Bernanke and Obama will give it to them because they are too big to fail.
Until California can grow a set of conservative principles, it will just go the way of Italy and Spain.
California is lost. The other sensible people & remaining productive companies need to move out of the state ASAP.
CA will look for a bailout. If it isn’t forthcoming, it will pass tax increases. Those won’t produce more revenue, pushing CA into default. By then, Federal debt will be in the $14 trillion range and CA default will raise questions about why anyone believes the U.S. isn’t going to default (or else hyper-inflate to pay its debt). We’ve got 2 years of “fun” coming up.
Monty at Ace: “At least this way the Democrats [in CA] get to own the mess they made in the first place. Wisconsin looked on that far shore and turned away…” So true.
Since the Dems took all the other State executive office, If Harris beats Cooley for Attorney General that could mean that Prop 8 will die. Recall that the Republicans promised to support repeal while the Dems were opposed. I’ll be glad to hear that if such is the case, but man what a cost!
Note to California from the rest of the US: don’t even think about asking for a bail-out. Take any such requests and shove ’em! You made your own mess, now dig your way out on your own.
I expected Whitman to lose, but it is disappointing that Fiorina didn’t squeak in.
California has only to January 4, 2011, to get any bailout approved by both houses of congress, and signed by the president.
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gastorgrab, good point – that slightly accelerates the scheduled I had in mind at #13.
But for the record – Bailout or not, one of CA, IL and NY (the states closest to default) *will* drag down the U.S. Treasury credit rating, before this is over – much as Greece and the PIIGS have brought the entire Euro into question.
#19, Yes, unfortunately that’s true.
Sean A> “Ummm, NO. The Founding Fathers intended all politicians to be “amateurs.””
Three names prove you’re all wet: John Adams, Thos Jefferson, and James Madison… let alone, the 1st and most consummate politician-Founding Father himself, Geo Washington. Or James Monroe… and Henry Clay and on and on.
Helio> “Did you manage to get Michigan into the hands of professional moderate Republican politicians?”
Yes, an entire of team of them. Michigan’s hole wasn’t dug in a day or a week; there’s a lot of heavy lifting to be done… for instance, when Jenny Granholm (D) took over Michigan 8 yrs ago, our budget was $1.3b out of whack… it’s been a series of one time gimmicks and band-aids for 8 full yrs.
Time to make the right choices and get the monkey of too-big-govt off the backs of Michigan’s taxpayers and our job creators in the private sector.
Corrections, health, k-12 will all take hits and it’s time to reform our state pension system and benefits –it’s not just killing CA; the state employee unions and education unions are killing the future with bloated, unconscionable pensions and benefits.
This’ll be good.
For the record – or the kickoff: To claim that Washington, a man who constantly sought and wished for retirement and who did not hold elective office before the Presidency and who invented our very tradition of the President stepping down voluntarily and after only 2 terms, was somehow *not* an example of the citizen/amateur politicians intended by the Founders precisely as Sean A claimed… is nuts.
Citizen/amateur can be very talented. Think Reagan. Or Ron Johnson, the guy who just beat Feingold.
I am disapointed today. The only hope is that the Dems will mess things up so much that someone will wake up. If I could (which I can’t cuz of family) I would move right now.
I think the discussions about CA’land or other states getting bailouts or breaks from the feds is highly, highly unlikely -and unnecessarily dramatic. The current House and outgoing Dem majority will have little interest in doing anything but relax after having avoided (as individual members) their own march to the guillotine that so many of their brothers made this fall.
New spending is so far off the table, it’s not an option. The Bush tax cuts, the AMT patch extension, the Estate Tax restored will be the items that the incoming GOP House will command and, as we’ve seen many times before, loser Congressmen often don’t even show up for House votes after they’ve been trounced… Madam Pelosi will have trouble even managing a daily majority in the House -if she shows up. It’s entirely possible that the GOP may have floor majority on many issues even before the new members get sworn in.
Remember, most of the failed and outed Dem Congressman will be thinking they can get back their seat in 2012 if Obama and the economy rebound. They won’t do anything now in lameduck to endanger that remote prospect.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if NancyP follows the lead of former Speakers who lost majority like Gingrich and Hastert… just resign your seat, hit the rocker, write a book and remember all the good ol days of yore.
I figured all those losing Democrats would be appointed to the ObamaCare Death Panels.
I started a rumour that Alan Grayson is going to get Juan William’s job on NPR.
ILC, you’re forgetting your history lessons-if you ever had them. Washington served repeatedly and willingly as prez of the constitutional convention and as the 1st prez. He was the consummate politician who learned the trade well –whether in the House of Burgesses from 1759-1774 or serving in the Continental Congress, Constitutional Convention, etc.
Although I can appreciate you’d like to ignore the other examples of professional politicians as Founding Fathers because you wrongly thought Washington to be your best opportunity to discredit the point, you’d be equally wrong picking him because you’ve mis-perceived the 18thC tradition of no man wanting to appear eager for public office.
Washington’s appeal as a man who retired to Mt Vernon comes from his grand gesture to lay down arms as the Nation’s chief military leader after the War of Rebellion and return to home instead of turning his army to march on the fed govt and seize power like so many military leaders of Europe did before and after Washington. That’s where the “retire to Mt Vernon” angle comes to play -not as a politician.
Nice try. Now, go get a class in early American history at your community college before making yourself out to be another, sigh, fool on yet another topic you know little of.
#21: So, Michigan-Matt, your point is that if Arnold Schwarzenegger had had more experience as a politician before becoming the Governor of California, his two terms (replacing recalled Gray Davis first in 2003, and then winning reelection in 2006) would have been successful?
Hmmmmmmmmm…you know what? I think you’re right! Clearly, it’s all about experience. I mean, just compare Arnold’s performance in The Terminator in 1984 to his performance in Terminator 3 twenty years later–it’s like night and day. In 1984, Arnold was such an amateur, but with 20 years of acting experience under his belt, his performance in Terminator 3 would have made Sir Lawrence Olivier weep. I stand CORRECTED.
Sean A, sorry to say, your attempt at wit went str8 out the window. I don’t get a lot of Jon Stewart’s humor either. I was correcting your point that amateurs make good pols; they don’t as a rule. Exceptions exist –but not the one that ILC advanced of Geo Washington. Nor yours of Arnie the Actor.
I don’t know why CA voters selected Arnie anymore than I can offer a rational explanation for other poor choices –I’d simply like to see Party members picking their candidates in the primary once again. I think, under those constrained but informed conditions, the best Gen E candidate will win out.
Contrawise, President Obama is an excellent politician, but a poor leader in the real world.
I did forget about Washington in the Burgesses. Doesn’t change his citizen-amateur status. The rest of your rant, MM, is only your usual stupid hot gas. Washington could have been King and said: No, I’m a citizen stepping down after 2 terms. That one act, right there, was a political and moral revolution. Sean A’s point stands, with Washington as a fine example.
(“Doesn’t change his citizen-amateur status” – because Colonial legislatures were part-time, low-paid affairs)
Yeah, you go with that one my ostrich headed friend. Let’s not let facts get in your rush to play the Village Fool.
Someone’s projecting again! 🙂
I don’t recall Adams wanting the job either.
If you really want a true citizen legislature, scrap elections entirely and choose them by lottery.
I would love to hear how this could possibly result in worse legislators than we currently get in Barney Frank, Sheila Jackson Lee, or Fortney Pete Stark.
You’re right. Arnold is not Ronnie. Arnold managed to stay awake on the job.
Adams so didn’t want the job, TGC, that he deliberately created his own then-modern day Fox News media organs to manage his slandering attacks on Jefferson, his only significant opponent for the Presidency… of course, Jefferson was doing the same to Washington and Adams.
Citizen politician? Adams? LOL -almost a credible as saying Washington laid down his gavel to return to Mt Vernon… because historians know he more closely threw the gavel in a fit than laid it down. He stopped after 2 terms cause he couldn’t stomach Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and all the sleaze.
History is a great teacher, but not if we keep letting legends and myths impede our proper reading of it.