Arnold Schwarzenneger For Governor!!

[DGMacphee]

He has Rob Lowe as his campagin advisor.

I think Arnie's been watching too much West Wing.

Nevertheless, I see this ending badly.

[remixor]

Hobbes: Yes, there is Cruz Bustamante.  He would be my second (and probably more practical) choice after Camejo.

Arnold's not as right-wing as some Republicans, but in California you have to be pretty damn moderate to have a good chance as a Republican.  I wasn't aware of his stance on same-sex marriages until now, but that certainly lowers my opinion of him a bit more (not that I would vote for him in the first place).  It's going to be hard for him to push that kind of conservative social agenda in this state.

[12431]

I don't know about the rest of the Americans, but "Ahnuld" would be a kick ass governor of California.

C'mon! that dude's all muscles and no brains!

[Trapezoid]

I dunno, if that were true he'd be washed up, broke, and taken advantage of a long time ago. Like what's happening to Mike Tyson right now.

[remixor]

I dunno, if that were true he'd be washed up, broke, and taken advantage of a long time ago. Like what's happening to Mike Tyson right now.

No, of course not.  He only just got into politics.  He has absolutely no experience in public service.  All he's done is make wildly successful films, which certainly aren't box office hits for their brilliant scripts.  He's had no opportunity to ruin himself so far.  I'm not saying he ISN'T going to last or anything, but you can hardly say he's succeeded right now.

[chessm29]

actually
arnold wudnt be any better than davis
u probably dont no politics

[Evil]

You know I always think "What will my kids think when they read about this in school? What about their kids, or their kids?". I really dont want my kids to see a shitty move like "Twins" and then realize that its the same person as the governer of California. Just like I dont want my kids to hear about Mj and him playing with little boys...

[Matt Brown]

yo evil, dont let your kids see bedtime for bonzo


"yup...he was president once..."

[Evil]

I know, thats why I dont chose to use that example...

[Dave Gilbert]

I have no trouble with actors becoming political figures, but it's an uphill battle for them to be taken seriously.  The only one I feel to have pulled it off successfully is Sonny Bono.  He had been out of the spotlight for awhile so people didn't associate him with his entertainment career too much, and he even asked a TV network to take "Sonny and Cher" reruns off the air.  Arnie is running for governor right after the release of Terminator 3.  If he was serious about running, he would wait a few years, stay out of the entertainment spotlight, and distance himself from it entirely.  Saying "I'll be back!" to reporters isn't the way to do it.

[Matt Brown]

personally, I'd take him more seirously if he didnt jump right into this, having no experenance whatsoever. If he was really serious about a job in public service, maybe he ought to join a political think tank, or run a  smaller town in california or something first. being gov...even more so in a very populated and powerful state, is a big job, and I dont think he's ready

[remixor]

I agree Panda (and DG).  It seems pretty arrogant of Schwarzanegger to expect people to take him seriously when he has no history of public service whatsoever.  It's not even so much that he's an actor for me as it is that "being an actor" is just about his only qualification.  I'm sure he's reasonably intelligent, but in terms of politics, he's no different than anyone else running for the goverornship.  If he wasn't already famous, he wouldn't have a chance, because he hasn't demonstrated any degree of political prowess or even experience.


Also, I'd like to say something about the state's general state (ha) of affairs.  There are a ton of candidates running, but people are honestly making too big of a deal about that.  Yes, there are a stupid amount of people on the ballot, but it really doesn't matter because most of those people are not at all serious contenders.  The real problems with California (of which there are plenty) have nothing to do with, for example, Larry Flynt running.  The only actual big candidate with a chance of winning who doesn't really make sense is Arnold.

[DGMacphee]

I especially wonder about Arnie's position ethically when you consider the recent allegations and older footage (i.e. the orgies, the drugs, the racial comments about South Africa).

Flynt I can understand running as Flynt has been responsible for some liberal press freedoms in the US.

I don't care about his porn factory -- I care that people can't sue for libel or defamation when others are critical (or more so satrical in Flynt's case) in the US.

If only Australia would adopt the same law.

In any case, if I was Californian, I'd vote Flynt!

[remixor]

Well, Flynt's platform includes rather questionable goals like keeping all the illegal immigrants we have and then bulking up California's borders to keep out all the rest of them.  This certainly doesn't actually take a stand on the issue, and it doesn't address all the illegal immigrants who commute daily, without whom California's agriculture industry would be severely impacted.  When asked about the education problems, he said (quote) "Whatever the education problems are, we have to fix 'em."  And generating state revenue from slot machines would certainly bring in money, but it seems a rather shaky economic plan to balance our deficit.

I don't even know anymore.  This whole state is going to hell

[DGMacphee]

I still think Flynt's platform sounds way better than Arnie's plaform.

[remixor]

I certainly won't argue with you there

[Las Naranjas]

I vote Coleman.

[Gilbert]

Heh I'm not American, so I'm not quite interested in who would become the Carnifornia Governor (I don't know the reason why they may need to change the governor either).

But I'd rather want Arnie to lose on this one...

...Because otherwise he won't say his cool words "I'll be Back!"

[Barcik]

Arnie is not a real politician, after suffering from an egg thrown at him.



Edit: Argh! I meant 'Arnie is now a real politician...'.

[TheYak]

Not meaning to floss a dead horse here but for those interested, we received our ballots recently.  

The list of candidates is 135 names long!  Lotsa choices here.  

And the notice given to Governor Gray Davis listing the reasons for the recall election is as follows:

"Gross mismanagement of California Finances by overspending taxpayers' money, threatening public safety by cutting funds to local governments, failing to account for the exorbitant cost of the energy fiasco, and failing in general to deal with the state's major problems until they get to the crisis stage. California should not have to be known as the state with poor schools, traffic jams, outrageous utility bills, and huge debts....all caused by gross mismanagement."

I have to agree with the poor school system statement as the above quote has a couple grammatical errors.  

anyway, I know this doesn't affect many of you (unless it sets a precident for other US states) but it is an interesting situation and an amusing one at that.