Thursday, October 09, 2003
You know, Spaceballs, Texas, etc? Nobody gets me.
A few of my friends have commented that California didn't elect a "Republican" as much as they elected a "Celebrity". But if you think about it, wouldn't the celebrity factor have been one of those things that resulted in big poll numbers at first, that then dwindled and wore off once people got to know his positions? Instead, his poll numbers started only mediocre, with little chance of beating Davis, and got higher and higher until a landslide election day. I think that's a good sign that the voters really DID vote for him largely for issues reasons, not just his fame.
Would Arnold have still been elected if his positions were closer to Gray Davis? I'm skeptical. But I guess we'll find out if people like him a year from now.
One thing that I've found interesting is this push to try and recall Arnie before he even has a chance to be in office. Naturally, this push is from the exact same people who have been on every talk show, in every newspaper, on every soapbox for months, screaming that voting "no on the recall" was a matter of principle, that recalls were always a bad idea, etc. Gee, if it's a bad idea when a governor has "only" been in office five years, how is it a good idea when a governor hasn't been in office five minutes? If Davis's supporters thought recalling Schwarzenegger might be a future strategy, they should have spent their time arguing against recalling Gray Davis specifically, and defended him. Instead, all the anti-recall signs and ads never even mentioned Davis -- they were each about opposing the very idea of a recall. So now, to try and organize an identical recall to that they've spent months condemning, "on principle," seems hypocritical and silly. (It also seemed silly that all the Clinton apologists who constantly said "but it was 20 years ago!" with regards to the Jones or Broaddrick cases were the same ones saying Schwarzenegger's groping reports made him ineligible for office. But I guess that's politics.)
The movie Predator is the big winner, of course, now producing not one, but TWO modern governors. I wonder who's next?
A few of my friends have commented that California didn't elect a "Republican" as much as they elected a "Celebrity". But if you think about it, wouldn't the celebrity factor have been one of those things that resulted in big poll numbers at first, that then dwindled and wore off once people got to know his positions? Instead, his poll numbers started only mediocre, with little chance of beating Davis, and got higher and higher until a landslide election day. I think that's a good sign that the voters really DID vote for him largely for issues reasons, not just his fame.
Would Arnold have still been elected if his positions were closer to Gray Davis? I'm skeptical. But I guess we'll find out if people like him a year from now.
One thing that I've found interesting is this push to try and recall Arnie before he even has a chance to be in office. Naturally, this push is from the exact same people who have been on every talk show, in every newspaper, on every soapbox for months, screaming that voting "no on the recall" was a matter of principle, that recalls were always a bad idea, etc. Gee, if it's a bad idea when a governor has "only" been in office five years, how is it a good idea when a governor hasn't been in office five minutes? If Davis's supporters thought recalling Schwarzenegger might be a future strategy, they should have spent their time arguing against recalling Gray Davis specifically, and defended him. Instead, all the anti-recall signs and ads never even mentioned Davis -- they were each about opposing the very idea of a recall. So now, to try and organize an identical recall to that they've spent months condemning, "on principle," seems hypocritical and silly. (It also seemed silly that all the Clinton apologists who constantly said "but it was 20 years ago!" with regards to the Jones or Broaddrick cases were the same ones saying Schwarzenegger's groping reports made him ineligible for office. But I guess that's politics.)
The movie Predator is the big winner, of course, now producing not one, but TWO modern governors. I wonder who's next?
