Even Gov. Arnold Won't Defend His Record/Ballot Initiatives in Today's Special Election in California!

Nick Gillespie | May 19, 2009

There's a big special election today in California, aimed at trying to save the sinking fiscal ship that is the Golden State.

O Captain, O Captain, where can you be? On the other side of the country, sipping tea.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, rebuffed with extreme prejudice a few years back during a different slate of ballot initiatives, has opted to leave the state for a photo-op with President Barack Obama:

In a last-minute twist, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will miss his own special election today.

The governor flew to Washington, D.C., Monday night in order to appear this morning with President Barack Obama and other leaders to announce a change in the nation's automobile emission rules.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger has been leading the fight for California and 13 other states to regulate vehicle emissions," said gubernatorial spokesman Aaron McLear.

"(The) historic announcement will include a three-party agreement between California, the Obama administration and the automakers that not only allows California to regulate our emissions but also establishes a national standard."

The governor has also been leading the fight to pass six ballot measures that would help address the state's budget woes. Polls have shown that five of the six are in deep trouble with voters, particularly Proposition 1C, which would allow the state to borrow $5 billion from future California Lottery revenues.

More here.

For Reason Foundation's analysis of the propositions on today's ballot, go here.

For an analysis of how state after state, including and especially California in its post-Gray Davis era, got themselves into terrible fiscal shape, read Reason's great recent cover story, "Failed States."

And to learn just how bad the situation is—and the role of Schwarzenegger, public-sector unions, and others in bringing it all down—watch this video below (and go here for related materials, links, audio and podcast versions, embed code and more). "Hasta La Vista, Arnold: What California's Economic Mess Means for America" is about 10 minutes long and feature screen villains far more memorable than Richard Dawson in Running Man or Sinbad in Jingle All the Way:

Comments

|5.19.09 @ 8:13AM|#

Gosh, Arnold is such a horrible leader. Zero leadership skills. Great salesman, or used to be-I'll give him that.

Kyle Jordan|5.19.09 @ 8:24AM|#

"(The) historic announcement will include a three-party agreement between California, the Obama administration and the automakers that not only allows California to regulate our emissions but also establishes a national standard."

Am I right in that this doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy all over?

|5.19.09 @ 8:26AM|#

Don't worry about it CA, He'll be back

|5.19.09 @ 8:29AM|#

O Captain, O Captain

There's too many English majors to pull that shit around here, Nick.

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Warty|5.19.09 @ 9:36AM|#

That's enough of Walt Whitman jacking off on the corpse of Abraham Lincoln for today, SugarFree.

|5.19.09 @ 10:22AM|#

You got your story yesterday. I'm not going to indulge you again. Let other people take a turn.

|5.19.09 @ 11:27AM|#

I still believe Arnold tried at first but then gave up after running into every special interest group in CA. Now he is happy to lead us down the path of destruction that we created ourselves. Of course he is going to move out of the state as soon as he leaves office and will probably laugh at us from a low tax rate state.

|5.19.09 @ 11:29AM|#

I still believe Arnold tried at first but then gave up after running into every special interest group in CA.

I might buy this. That initial slate of ballot reforms were decent ideas. I feel like he totally gave up once they were all rejected.

Orange Line Special|5.19.09 @ 2:06PM|#

Perhaps Gillespie would be kind enough to describe how the policies that Reason promotes have helped get CA into the current mess. Reason has constantly promoted MassiveImmigration without coupling that with a demand for ending social welfare. While Reason has very little influence (if it has any at all), MassiveImmigration has done tremendous harm to CA, and not just through increased spending. It's also given a tremendous amount of power to far-left politicians, and those far-left politicians have then used that power to push for more spending.

If Reason had made their proposals all-or-nothing, that would be one thing. But, they have never done that: they've never said that they'll only support OpenBorders once the WelfareState is demolished. They've supported OpenBorders and MassiveImmigration despite knowing what would happen in the real world where, for instance, many CA legislators act more like agents of the MexicanGovernment than U.S. elected officials.

Here's more on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, including things that - of course - Reason won't tell you. Click each link to read more.

P.S. In case anyone replies to this, their responses will almost assuredly be ad homs, thereby conceding my points and showing the childish, anti-intellectual nature of libertarians.

|5.19.09 @ 2:09PM|#

When Arnold got elected I think a reasonable person would hve thought that the residents of CA were hoping to change the path of fiscal ruin they were on. Once the Unions shot down any hope of that by beating the initiatives, the Age of Arnold was over befor it began.

His wisest course of action at that point may well have been to resign because now this mess will be his legacy- and of course they will blame the Repubs even tho it was the Dems and their cohorts who did this- with the now RINO Arnold.

|5.19.09 @ 2:16PM|#

swift boater -- I agree. When the first round of initiatives failed, the best thing Arnold could have done for California would have been to resign. He could have given a speech, explaining why he could do nothing without any support.

Arnold Schwarzengger was in a unique position at the time. He had money, he had fame, he didn't need to be the Governor of California. Such a resignation MIGHT have been a wake-up call to California.

However, it seemed as though he woke up the next day and decided that being governor of California was more important to him than the welfare of California. He's acted that way ever since.

Frankly, I am disappointed in the residents of my native state. I am disappointed in Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I joined the many others who was born in California, graduated from a UC school, and left the state.

Also, whoever and whatever Orange Line Special may be, he's right about what he says in the comment above -- and I consider myself a libertarian.

|5.19.09 @ 2:17PM|#

who WERE... :)

|5.19.09 @ 2:20PM|#

I think Arnold now only has an eye on his "legacy" which in modern times means sucking up to fashionable pseudo-intellectual fads. He hopes to be remembered not for diverting California's road to ruin but or fostering job killing environmental restrictions on the entire nation.

|5.19.09 @ 2:36PM|#

California's plight is the direct result of the open borders, welfare for millions of third world wetbacks policy enthusiastically endorsed by Gillespie and Reason.

|5.19.09 @ 2:52PM|#

California's plight is the direct result of the open borders, welfare for millions of third world wetbacks policy enthusiastically endorsed by Gillespie and Reason.

Open borders are not particularly compatible with both generous welfare benefits and relying almost entirely on income and capital gains taxes from the very wealthy. Texas has managed the problem considerably better by relying on sales taxes and property taxes, taxes that illegal immigrants do not easily evade. (Most rent, but renters end up bearing a burden of property taxes.)

|5.19.09 @ 3:32PM|#

To John Thacker;

I agree but in a few years it won't matter. The GOP currently holds the Texas Senate by the skin of its teeth (two vote margin).

With the exploding Mex/Tex population Texas will go Democrat and soon look very much like California.

|5.19.09 @ 3:45PM|#

Raoul is right about Texas, although I believe that it is the Texas House that hangs on a two-vote margin.

At any rate, after ACORN works its magic on the 2010 census Texas will turn blue. Fortunately I will have moved overseas a long time before.

I disagree with Shannon Love about Ahnauld's intentions. His legacy is already blown (the best that he can hope for is that once he leaves office no one will remember him), and his movie career might be in the tank (a geriatric Terminator? I think not!). Ahnauld is lobbying for a job in the Obama administration, even if it is the pooper-scooper for the First Dog.

Such is the fate of a RINO.

|5.19.09 @ 3:59PM|#

I agree but in a few years it won't matter. The GOP currently holds the Texas Senate by the skin of its teeth (two vote margin).

Oh really? It's not 19-12?

It's the Texas House that you're thinking of. And don't forget that the GOP only took the Texas House for the first time in 2002, for the first time in 130 years, and have never had a particularly large margin.

Of course, we can spend all day talking about conservative Democrats retiring, etc.

|5.19.09 @ 6:02PM|#

OK, I stand corrected. It's the Texas house.

Point is this;

The massive influx of third world immigrants is not coincidental to the massive growth (100% in ten years)in California state government. It is largely the cause.

Poor people with large families dependent on social welfare services vote their self interest, which they see as the party and poiticians who promise to preserve and expand social welfare.

|5.20.09 @ 9:35AM|#

The massive influx of third world immigrants is not coincidental to the massive growth (100% in ten years)in California state government. It is largely the cause.

It is indeed related, sure. Another factor is that California gets most of its revenue from income tax and capital gains from wealthy people. Those are sources that tend to have enormous boom and bust cycles.

California is hardly the only state to spend every dime that comes in during a boom, and then be "forced" to raise taxes during a bust. Their tax sources magnify the effect, though.

|5.20.09 @ 6:01PM|#

Just wanted to weigh in as another largely libertarian minded person who thinks that open borders is a terrible idea when there exists a welfare state. Milton Friedman said as much on Charlie Rose (Dec. 26, 2005 episode).
CA has been importing poverty and now it's going broke...big surprise.