See You At the Pah-ty

New at Reason: Nick Gillespie bids a fond farewell to our long national dream of Governor Arnold.

Comments

[Bill Kalles]

The Libertarians should start a draft Clint Eastwood for Govenor campaign.
That would "make my day."

[Russ D]

Nick makes a huge jump of stupid with this sentence:

"If he had managed to win a major office, he would almost certainly have removed certain lifestyle topics from the political arena."

Arnie may have wanted to, but there are a whole mess of other people and branches of government that are part of the political arena that put lifestyle issues in. Is Gray Davis or any other governor responsible for CSPI lawsuits and ridiculous anti-smoking legislation and propositions?

Or maybe Nick's being sarcastic and it went over my head.

[Dan]

Smoking restrictions are a "lifestyle topic" only inasmuch as restrictions in the dumping of toxic waste are a lifestyle topic.

And don't give me any of that horseshit about there being no proven health risks to secondhand smoke -- it's the cancer link that's bogus. The links to asthma, emphezima, and bronchitis are rock-solid, as my bronchial tubes can well testify.

The anti-smoking laws are an offense against the property rights of club/restaurant owners who wish to designate their establishments as "smoking". They are not a violation of smoker's rights, because there are no "smoker's rights". You no more have the right to fill the air that people breathe with smoke than I have a right to piss in your mouth.

[Jim Walsh]

Arnold? He'll be back...

[Bill G]

I enjoyed Terminator 3, but its box office can't be thrilling any of its producers. If it really cost $170m to make, it's not sending anybody to the bank but Arnold.

[Warren]

Dan,
But you DO have the right to piss in my mouth if I say it's OK. You don't like smoke filled rooms? Then stay out of them, just stop trampling on my freedom.

As far as 'lifestyle topics' go, Nick was referring to the lifestyles of politicians. He is suggesting that we could have an end to the media frenzy character assassination and hunt for skeletons if the unabashed Arnold held office. I don't buy it, but it's a different point than anti-smoking and other lifestyle legislation.

[Croesus]

Warren,

Why? Because he porked a lot of women in Brazil?

[Croesus]

BTW, having Arnold Governor maybe your "national dream," but it sure as hell isn't mine. The last actor we had as President was a liar, a thug, and a religious nut. So the track record isn't good. Yeah, yeah ... go off on me Reagan worshippers and sycophants.

[Cheez]

Cro,

While you invoke the last actor to be president, you needn't worry, Arnold can't become president since he's not native born (not considering the scenario laid out in Demolition Man). As for the last actor governor, I believe he was quite far from a religious nut. The comment about religion being a crutch for weakminded people gave me that impression, but I could be wrong.

[Russ D]

I didn't take Nick's POV as a reduction of "lifestyle" discussion as it pertains to the personal lives of politicians themselves. Perhaps that's what he meant, it wasn't clear to me thought I can be thick at times.

Here's a nice(!) story about people being hassled for smoking outdoors.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cta01.html

[Sean]

Apparently he's planning to announce his decision on Wednesday on Leno. Maybe it is a done deal, but going on Leno and announcing you are running when it was previously thought you were not, that's one hell of a jump out of the gate. Of course, maybe he's just trying to pump up T3's numbers.

[Heironymus Braintree]

"Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and phone-sex addict Bob Livingston were despicable and why they ended up disgraced. It wasn't simply because they had many failings in their personal lives but because they insisted on trying to force their vision of proper morality on the rest of us..."

Um, I know about Newtie and Bob being hypocrites. They criticized others' exciting sexual escapades but could not keep their own zippers up when on leave from the tired delights of their own marital beds. But when, exactly, did Bill Clinton ever try to force his morality down our throats in a hypocritical manner? Specific examples, please! I have found most accusations leveled at the Clintons and their supporters around here to be reliably chimerical but am willing to be surprised.

Nick?

[Fabian Marie]

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DATE: 02/28/2004 09:01:11
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