Arnold Schwarzenegger

The thing I remember most about Reagan was he seemed to bring pride and respect back to America. When the guy talked about the United States you could tell that he loved his country much more than he loved himself, and he had confidence in himself. I am not sure we have seen that since. I would like to see someone bring that atmosphere back. Maybe because of where he has come from Arnold will have this kind of presence. Time will tell.

 

"Schwarzenegger seems a bundle of contradictions: an outspoken Republican who's married to Democratic stalwart Sen. Ted Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver (and the daughter of George McGovern's running mate!). A man who proclaims his life story to be a triumph of individual will, yet often reaches out to people less successful than he. An actor who has regularly been roughed up by critics, yet won a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting debut. A dedicated 'jock' who spent years in the weight room, but also has a master of business administration degree. A brutally tough business negotiator who's given away millions to charity. An aggressive bachelor in his younger days who also helped advance women's bodybuilding. A 'health nut' who has also taken massive doses of steroids. A man whose father was literally a Nazi in occupied Austria, but whose career has been immeasurably helped by Jewish promoters and producers and calls himself an 'honorary Jew.' A top-notch athlete whose first charitable work was with handicapped children."
-- http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030805-090025-1516r

I'm a bit worried about the steroids. Weren't Ben Johnson and the imaginary Bush brother in Doonesbury in 1988 both disqualified for using them?

 

"Schwarzenegger seems a bundle of contradictions: an outspoken Republican who's married to Democratic stalwart Sen. Ted Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver (and the daughter of George McGovern's running mate!). A man who proclaims his life story to be a triumph of individual will, yet often reaches out to people less successful than he. An actor who has regularly been roughed up by critics, yet won a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting debut. A dedicated 'jock' who spent years in the weight room, but also has a master of business administration degree. A brutally tough business negotiator who's given away millions to charity. An aggressive bachelor in his younger days who also helped advance women's bodybuilding. A 'health nut' who has also taken massive doses of steroids. A man whose father was literally a Nazi in occupied Austria, but whose career has been immeasurably helped by Jewish promoters and producers and calls himself an 'honorary Jew.' A top-notch athlete whose first charitable work was with handicapped children."
-- http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030805-090025-1516r

I'm a bit worried about the steroids. Weren't Ben Johnson and the imaginary Bush brother in Doonesbury in 1988 both disqualified for using them?

 

MarkIsrael brings up a good point, one that I think could hang Arnold, if anybody's listening to him.

On Leno's show, I believe it was, he stated that he didn't care whether one was a Democrat or Republican; he wants to help all Californians. The problem with this is that people want you to stand one way or another on an issue. He simply cannot help all Californians, not, at least, in regard to issues like abortion. He can help all by balancing budgets and issues of those sorts, but that's it. If I were voting, at this point in the game, I wouldn't vote for him. For all his good antitheticals, this time it works against him.

Starkman

 

You think helping people means doing what they want? What ever happened to "tough love"?

 

"Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million."
-- Arnold Schwarzenegger (http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=032195), who now has $68 million (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/10/ARNOLD.TMP)

 

I believe that Schwarzenegger has said pretty unequivocably that he supports keeping abortion legal. Social/religious conservatives may not like his stand, but they can't say that he hasn't made it.

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Here's Arnold on some issues, from the Friday Aug 8 San Francisco 'Chronicle' (p.12)

On taxes:

"I still believe in lower taxes- and the power of the free market. I still believe in controlling government spending. If it's a bad program, let's get rid of it."

(Arnold taped an introduction to Milton Friedman's 10-part TV series 'Free to Choose')

On gays:

"I have no sexual standards in my head that say this is good or this is bad. 'Homosexual' - that only means to me that he enjoys sex with a man and I enjoy sex with a woman. It's all legitimate to me."

On gun control:

"I don't run around every day with a gun in my hand. So I want kids to understand the difference: One is make believe, like we do in movies. But in reality, I'm for gun control. I'm a peace-loving guy."

On the environment:

"I will fight for the environment. Nothing to worry about."

On government:

"I come from Austria, a socialist country. There you can hear 18-year olds talking about their pension. Individualism is incompatible with socialism. I felt I had to come to America where the government wasn't always breathing down your neck or standing on your shoes."

On cloning (and indirectly on religious conservatives):

"At the moment, they're dealing with it by putting the religious spin on it. I understand that; they are the same people who are religiously fanatic, that feel uncomfortable with it. But I think that's also a mistake."

On political parties (quotes from the newspaper story, connecting text by me):

Soon after arriving in the US, Arnold watched a debate between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. Humphrey talked about protectionism and government planning, which "sounded a lot like socialism in Austria." Nixon talked about "less government, lower taxes, the free market, international trade and a strong military. I realized: Yes! I am a Republican. I pretty much thought it was as simple as the movies: The Republicans were the good guys, and the Democrats were the bad guys." But after touring the country for the Special Olympics, Arnold says "I learned how America really worked. And what I realized was this: both parties had good ideas. So it's dead wrong to see things only as us versus them."

Democratic consultant Patrick Reddy on Arnold:

"If you go back and watch 'Pumping Iron', this is not a member of the religious right. He's never preached on those issues. He's a businessman. He preaches the gospel of self-fulfillment, working hard, pumping iron and looking good."

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I read Arnold Schwarzenegger as being kind of a classical European "liberal", what an American would call a "libertarian". He's simply for liberty, whether it's in the business world or in peoples' private lives. 'Free to choose'.

Where contradictions arise for Arnold is that he seems prone to proposing idealistic government programs to solve problems, without worrying that he's contradicting his own small government theories. (Maybe it's the Kennedy influence.)

Personally, I think that Arnold might be very well suited to California.

California has a growing Democratic majority. It is rather liberal socially, but it's also quite entrepeneurial and laissez faire in a lot of ways.

The problem for the Republican minority in California is that while the religious/social right is a distinct minority in the state as a whole, it is a majority among the state's Republicans. So nobody can get nominated by the party in the primary election unless they support a social-conservative agenda that almost guarantees that they will be defeated in the general election.

In order to be electable, Republicans have to recognize that they are a minority party and try to make themselves more attractive to independents and to moderate Democrats.

That's where Arnold comes into the picture. He's taking advantage of a recall election that eliminates the necessity of him having to contest a Republican-only primary election that he might have trouble winning, and he's trying to claim the center as his own turf. If things work out as he hopes, his opponents on both the left and the right will come off looking like extremists.

 

As opposed to all of the candidates who claim to be against the environment??? I bet is he "for" education, too. Is it too much to ask to know what specific policies he supports?

Honestly, though, I think that most of the horrible environmental policies in this country are due to campaign contributions.

Campaign contributions buy access. I don't think anyone will deny that. Based on my experience, contributions do not buy votes, but that often does not matter.

For example, a "conservative" candidate receives significant contributions from, let's say, an oil company. At a campaign fundraiser, the candidate is told how opening up a particular area for drilling or allowing certain pollution standards is actually good for the environment. He never hears the other side (since they advocates don't show up to the fundraisers) so he believes that the argument is legitimate and votes to allow that particular policy, all the while thinking he is championing the environment.

Anyway, my point is that if Arnold funds his own campaign (which I assume he is going to do), he will not owe anyone anything. However, that does not mean that they will not still have far greater access. Who is Arnold more likely to hold a meeting with: his buddy who is CEO of an oil company, or the president of some "liberal" environmental group?

While I think that I would trust Arnold far more than most politicians, but "nothing to worry about" is not a sufficient answer for such a significant area of policy.

 

Well, if any of that Jungian race memory crap is actually true, an Osztrak should be good at handling multi-everything California. Of course, my ancestors came here to get away from the Habsburgs--so where do my relatives wind up? California. Hee hee. Gott erhalte Kaiser Arnold? I dunno...

 

I think that Arnold probably does play well in California. By percentages, we tend to be pro-choice, for gun control, comfortable with gays and lesbians as part of society, and so on. Yes, we have individual pockets (Orange County, CA, for example) of resistance, but as a whole much of what he says will probably resonate well with the voters.

Republicans here, though, tend to support more conservative candidates. If Arnold is smart, he will be attending lots of Democractic fund raisers because he will need their support to win. It's likely that with Rob Lowe, a well-known Democrat, stepping up to the plate, this will happen.

Now, if he can just teach Warren Buffet to keep his mouth shut. Proof positive that you can be rich and politically inept. Proposition 13 can be directly traced to the implosion of California's schools, but that is irrelevant. Touch that and you become increasingly unelectable.

He also needs to stop embarrassing himself. I saw an interview the other day. It's clear he needs to be force fed some information quickly by his advisors. Too many interviews where he shows that he doesn't always know what he's talking about (not just bad answers, but no answer) and that has to hurt him.



Tom Nixon

 

Hey, wait a minute. The United Press article Mark Israel posted says "A dedicated 'jock' who spent years in the weight room, but also has a master of business administration degree."

A search for "Schwarzenegger" and "MBA" finds a bunch of other references to this, such as http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/952370/posts.

What's going on here?
1. He really has an MBA?
2. Major media are all making the same mistake by chance?
3. He has at some point claimed to have an MBA?

 

Bill Dayson and Tom Nixon makes some very accurate observations about the climate in California. As a Californian who tends to lean conservatively, I have watched with great dismay the short-sightedness and corruption of the Davis administration and much of the legislature and the impotence and lack of leadership in the Republican side of the house. The education system in the state is a disaster.

While I am not a particular fan of Arnold, I do agree that his combination of liberal/conservative views, charisma and extremely high profile make him more electable than any other candidate.

Tony

 

"According to arnoldschwarzeneger.com, Arnold graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Superior with a BA in business and international economics in 1979. In 1986, after working for the Special Olympics and various other charitable organizations, Arnold was also awarded an honorary degree of Humane Letters from UW-Superior."
-- http://www.uwalumni.com/askabe/athletics.html

"Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria (four miles from Graz). He became a U.S. citizen in 1983. He earned an MBA from the University of Wisconsin."
-- http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger

"Arnold Schwarzenegger Party: Republican Residence: Brentwood Family: Married, four children Education: M.B.A. in business and international economics, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 1980."
-- http://andrew_redux.blogs.com/redux/2003/08/getting_to_know_1.html

I'd guess that somewhere along the line, "BA" got mis-transcribed as "MBA", and that major media are either (wrongly) trusting Wikipedia or copying from one another.

 

The lead story on the local evening news last night was the revelation that Schwarzenegger had gone AWOL when a soldier in the Austrian army, and was arrested for same.

Childish prank, said one of his spokesmen, like driving too fast.

Remember what the opposition did to the revelation that Clinton, at a similar age, smoked marijuana at Oxford.

 

I was never in the regular military but isn't everyone AWOL at one time or another.

 

Yea, but Clinton didn't inhale.

 

Clinton was criticised for lying about his smoking marijuana in the most inept manner possible: OK I took a hit, but I didn't inhale.

Look, if you you are gonna smoke dope, fucking inhale.

And if you are gonna lie about smoking dope, don't admit that you smoked it, but plead that it doesn't count because you did it badly.

Clinton was laughed at because what he said was simply idiotic.

 

Was listening to talk radio in car on AM so not sure of full content but Governor Gray Davis is quoted in a San Francisco newspaper as saying he wants to make CA more diverse. He is to have gone on and said CA has people from every planet and children of people from every planet. When questioned his staff said the Governor was tired from the close of the legislative process. Is there another "Governor Moonbeam" in the Golden State?

 

It's true.

As a Californian, I can tell you that the streets are bustling with aliens, legal and otherwise.

Most of them are constantly shouting incomprehensible gibberish. One kind, called "Canadians" ('pod people') do often speak English though.

Aliens aren't so bad, as long as you don't trip over their tentacles.

 

We're still reeling from some of the Reagan-era policies (take a look at the homeless population) and don't need a repeat. We need repair. We don't need entertainers posing as politicians, although the reverse is often true. I'm embarrassed by the circus atmosphere of this so-called-maybe-if the courts don't reverse it-election making one person so paramount in reversing this state's ills. Not a chance any of em can create that magic.