Schwarzeneggerian Shortcomings

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In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino lays into what Gov. Arnold has failed to do so far.

Whole thing here.

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Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

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  1. Patriot

    As a non-Californian, it seems as if Arnold has been relatively effective as a governor thus far. It has after all, only been one year. He has already established a track record of relatively sound fiscal policy. Let's face it, Cali's budget was beyond a short-term fix. Arnold seems to be heading in the right direction at least.

    *This message was paid for by Schwarzenegger for Prez in 2012.*

  2. Ironchef

    Is anyone really surprised? Unless any politician reduces the scope, power, and control of government, they, like the government programs they control are doomed to failure.

  3. Vynnie

    To give some context to this, the LA Times is a very left-leaning publication that went on full attack of Schwarzenegger during his campaign, going so far as to publish inflammatory comments days before the election and wait to print the retractions until after. Even so, they don't seem to find too much criticism of the man personally - most of their comments are problems the CA system has had for years, and to the Times' credit they are relatively reasonable criticisms.

    One comment - the budget is indeed still $6 bil. in the hole, but it's down from the $30 bil. plus deficit under Davis. That's a lot better than I expected Schwarzenegger could do in this amount of time.

    It's interesting to see the Times decry the lack of merit-based pay in CA state service, since that has in the past been a very partisan issue. Republican Pete Wilson (guv before Davis) fought for eight years to institute "real" merit pay and never got anywhere. If the Democratic interest in the subject goes beyond the Times (and the Repubs don't switch sides on it just to be contrary) we might actually get real reform for once.

  4. TWC

    It is so interesting to me that non-Californians, particularly in the east, often refer to California as "Cali". I don't think anyone who lives here uses that term. I favor Californicate myself.

    As to Arnie? Better than that other guy but this state is still in deep crap.

    The telling tale is the condition of the roads--at one time Ca had the best roads in the world and now (according to Bob Poole) our roads rank 47th out of 50 states.

  5. Ben

    TWC--As a native New Jerseyian who has never set foot in California I can confirm that I refer to it as Cali and always assumed thats what people in California called it. It seems like they always call it that in rap songs.

    As for Arnold doing an effective job, all I have to say is that I would take him over my Gov. McGreevey any day. I thought he was supposed to resign or something...

  6. Jack

    "In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino lays into what Gov. Arnold has failed to do so far."

    Nice bias, Nick. How about: "In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino outlines Gov. Arnold's to do list"?

  7. Jack

    "In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino lays into what Gov. Arnold has failed to do so far."

    Nice bias, Nick. How about: "In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino outlines Gov. Arnold's to do list"?

  8. Andy D

    I can attest to the poor conditions of the roads around here in San Diego. It's bothersome enough when you drive over the irregularities and worry that you'll have to pay for car repairs... it's much worse when you're on a bicycle and worry that these cracks and bumps and potholes will throw you off the bike and into traffic, not to mention the nut-shocks.

  9. Dan

    How about: "In the Los Angeles Times, Reason Foundation's George Passantino outlines Gov. Arnold's to do list"?

    Yeah, I thought that was weird spin, too. The article doesn't read like a list of failures -- it just outlines what has to be done.

    Arnold's got the state moving in the right direction now, and he's got some momentum behind him. We're in a better situation this year than we were last year; I expect things to be better still next year. Most Californians seem to feel the same way. Things seemed so hopeless towards the end of the Davis years -- the Democratic governor was a crook who didn't even bother hiding his corruption, the Republicans nominated an incompetent right-wing dolt to challenge him, and both parties were secure in their gerrymandered legislative seats. There was really a feeling that nothing would, or could, change. People don't think that way now -- they realize that if things get bad, they can throw the bums out.

  10. Patrick

    I never heard the word "Cali" when I lived in 'Frisco.

  11. Lowdog

    And I never hear 'frisco' when I'm in The City (SF).

  12. Andrew Lynch

    ...the Republicans nominated an incompetent right-wing dolt...

    I can assign incompetent, right-wing, or dolt to some of the contenders, but not all lables to one. Who are you talking about?

  13. Dan

    Who are you talking about?

    Bill Simon -- far too right-wing for California, and an atrocious campaigner to boot.

    Picture someone with John Kerry's charisma, Bill Clinton's morals and George Bush's fiscal responsibility. That's Gray Davis. Now picture someone who actually manages to lose an election to him anyway. That's Bill Simon.

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