Hiltzik - Arnold Agonistes

Great read!

http://goldenstateblog.latimes.com/goldenstate/2005/11/arnold_agoniste.html

Arnold Agonistes
Michael Hiltzik

And what of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political future?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I do not believe he will run for reelection. Sure, he declared his candidacy a few weeks ago, but he was boxed into a corner: The big donors being solicited for the initiative campaigns were sitting on their hands, pending reassurances that he’d be around to deliver the appropriate quid pro quos in the next term. The chief objection to my forecast was that his ego wouldn’t let him bail out. To that I say, ego cuts both ways. Whatever his yes-men have been telling him, Tuesday’s results are inescapable. Will he want to risk an even more personal repudiation next November?

Watch out for signs of an exit strategy in the next few months. The creation of a Schwarzenegger Foundation for National Renewal, say. Another appearance by Maria on Oprah saying she wants her husband back home with the kids. A visit to the doctor for a "routine checkup."

snip

Routed and pained, the Friends of Arnold will now declare that California is ungovernable. Baloney. All we know for sure is that it’s ungovernable by a blustering lout without the capacity to compromise and lacking a genuine program. Schwarzenegger doesn’t have an education policy. He doesn’t have a fiscal policy—neither a revenue plan nor a spending plan. Energy and water policies? He hasn’t even started on those.

He’s not a stupid or lazy man, but he has been a stupid and lazy governor. He doesn’t spend very much time in Sacramento, so he’s never learned the ropes. He surrounds himself with toadies who stoke his sense of entitlement and his paranoia about powerful enemies. He seems confused about the depth and origins of the opposition to his policies, because he has never met voters in their natural habitats, only on stage sets.

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There are NO downsides to this--NONE. It's nice to see people come back to their senses. The only thing I worry about is that there are alot of crazy people running around in California (Arnold voters) who haven't gone for help yet.