The News Cycle
| State Controller sent a response out this afternoon on Gov. Schwarzenegger's decision to run for reelection. “When Arnold Schwarzenegger took office he promised real change. I didn’t vote for him, but like most Californians I hoped that he would be bipartisan and try to solve problems. That didn’t last long. “He has taken a hard right turn. The Governor is attacking nurses, firefighters and teachers it is clear he is taking the state in the wrong direction. California can’t afford four more years of his politics or his policies. “Californians deserve a governor who can solve our tough problems, someone with a proven track record of innovation and new solutions. That is why I’m running and that is what I will do as Governor.” The only problem is that the Governor hasn't technically announced. Talk about trying to get ahead of the news cycle. |
posted by Shane Goldmacher at 5:36 PM
Comments on "The News Cycle"
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Anonymous said ... (8:04 AM) :
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Anonymous said ... (8:09 AM) :
post a commentThese comments are just more of the same old Democratic B.S. I see on TV every day. Remind me again what Hitler said about lies.
Don't get me wrong. I have my problems and disappointments with Arnold. Here are a few of them:
1. Two years into his term, Arnold has yet to articulate any clear political philosophy, principles, or governing program. There are rumors flitting about that he is a closet libertarian. I have yet to see any clear-cut evidence that this is true. What Arnold has done is to come up with a bunch of ad-hoc, incoherent patchwork ballot propositions, most of which will probably turn out to be ineffective.
2. Arnold is too willing to compromise with the wrong people. Related to the first criticism is the fact that Arnold seems to want to make the wrong people happy. When I see in the LA Times a picture of Phil Burton with a big sh_t-eating grin on his face, saying Arnold is "someone we can work with," like I did a while back, I know there is something very seriously wrong. Phil Burton is happy, but what about the 2/3 of Californians who voted for major change in a more libertarian/Republican direction in the recall? I will know that Arnold is doing something right when Phil Burton, along with Phil Angelides and all the rest of the socialist Democrats who got us into this mess, are screaming bloody murder, not saying how happy they are to be able to "work with Arnold."
3. Related to both of these criticisms, Arnold has yet to make the extremely serious and deep budget and benefit cuts needed to correct the state's long term structural fiscal imbalances, let alone restore the normal power balance between state and local governments, reform out of control health care costs and mandates that are killing our counties, fix a terminally broken education system that is last in the nation (or at least close enough to last that it really doesn't matter if it really is *dead last*), deal with traffic in our cities, etc. etc. Almost all of these problems are the result of the programs started with the best of intentions by former governor Pat Brown, Sr., but whose net long term effect has been to turn scarce economic commodities (transportation, healthcare, education, etc.) into free goods. Oops, I forgot, Pat Brown is beyond reproach, the greatest governor who ever lived, who is not to be criticized, not even by (so-called) conservative (so-called) Republicans.
So, *if* Arnold runs again, and *if* he wants my vote, he's got some serious explaining and work to do.
Oh, and let me add one more thing: Arnold backed off the one serious problem he did try to deal with, government pension reform, when that got too hot to handle.
So the one thing he started to do that might have shown that, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, he really does have the cojones to deal with the state's problems and gotten me to feel a little bit enthusiastic he wimped out on.