Now that Arnold has been elected governor, Zach Baker hands an envious crown over to the state that was stupid enough to appoint a bodybuilding movie star its leader.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
As the cynics are almost done reflecting on the recall fiasco, I have a real problem.
I have never been able to spell “Schwarzenegger” correctly. Now I am in the difficult position of writing a column about him.
Yep, I will probably be doing a lot of cutting and pasting here.
You know, it's absurd. Every couple of years another state wants to win the crown of “dumbest state in the union.” In 1998 it was Minnesota, who looked at three candidates and decided that a former WRESTLER was the best choice.
Jesse Ventura is a bit of verbal hybrid. One minute he’ll say something that has you nodding in approval, and the next he has you wanting to scream for help. He spent his time getting more attention for appearing as a referee at WWF Summerslam and for being an XFL announcer than for being a governor. That’s probably a good thing. I find it ironic that a man who attacks the regular politicians in Washington for being self serving probably set the record for the most shameless self promoting acts of any politician ever.
And yet, Minnesota would have re-elected him had he run again.
Congratulations Minnesota, you had the nod as the stupidest state. (ok, in fairness, Ventura won with far less than fifty percent of the vote, so he hardly had a mandate. I am not a necessarily a Jesse basher. He is probably the best wrestling commentator ever. But that is where the admiration for his politics ends.)
Of course, Florida set new standards for state stupidity in 2000. I am not going to pretend to know who won Florida. Republicans generally believe that Bush did, Democrats fervently say otherwise. What I will say is that if people took more than five minutes to actually LOOK at their ballots before heading to the beach, this would have never occurred.
So Florida won it in 2000.
Then the crown returned where it should have always belonged.
Two words: California recall.
Call me old fashioned, but I generally believe that a winner of a state election should be allowed to screw up for the duration of their term. Provided that he or she breaks no laws, they should be given a ticket to mess up for as many years as their term is. That’s the fun of politics.
So excuse me for being against the recall. It’s the equivilant of the officials handing a football game back to the losing team because the instant replay they saw two days after the game revealed that the football hit the ground.
Gray Davis was not a good governor. But California elected him twice. They made their collective bed, now they need to do hallucinogens in it. Or something.
So now they have (here we go) Arnold Schwarzenegger as their new governor. Some people may say that criticism of Arnold is unfair, and that Jesse Ventura is an example of someone who can run a state without much experience.
I have railed against Ventura, but he will not go down as the worst governor ever. But that is because he had a financial surplus when he came into office. That is a big difference. A governor with a surplus has a job so easy they can moonlight as a football announcer on the weekends.
Arnold is walking into a huge problem here, and I don’t see how anyone could have looked at him and said: “He’s the best qualified for the job.”
He has never held elected office, never managed a deficit, never sat in an elected officials chair.
He may be a movie star, he may be well intentioned, and he certainly is the survivor of one of the most disturbing last second negative campaigns in American history.
But he’s not ready to be governor.
Congratulations California, the crown is yours. Wear it with pride
I absolutely love it when people from the midwest or wherever weigh in on the California recall like they know what they are talking about. As a journalist for a California newspaper, I went through the recall, read all the stories, had the inside scoop (the Merc scoop a couple stories in the recall) and had one of the most informed opinions on the recall. And I have to say I'm glad Arnold won, cause out of everyone else that ran for this recall, he is the best candidate. He has the money, the power and the pull to make things happen. The best example of this is the appointment of his transition staff, which are some of the richest and most powerful people in the country. And he has the backing of these people and the people of California, who will be more than willing to help him out in a crisis, something that they wouldn't have done for Davis. And I think it's idiotic to say that if a governer is screwing up, you should just keep him in office cause that's who you voted for. California's didn't exactly have a good choice in the past election. Davis was the only candidate anyone could vote for. Now they have a chance to fix it and I say, let them do it. So, I think those of you in ohio weighing in on the recall should stick to ohio politics and leave California out of it.