Zach Baker says that just when you thought no one could outdo Florida and Minnesota in the "Country's dumbest state" contest, along comes California to reclaim the crown that belonged there all along.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
As the cynics continue to pile 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 is 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.
Of course, that grappler, 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 got more attention for his state by appearing as a referee at WWF Summerslam and an XFL announcer than by 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 Jesse basher persay. 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 the period 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 we have (here we go) Arnold Schwarzenegger as the 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 minor league 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, in my opinion.
Congratulations California, the crown is yours. Wear it with pride.