Reply #18: Good Dan Walters column on Arnold's speech

[realFedUp]

dailykos also has great comments on Arnold's channneling Pat Brown
now instead of Pete Wilson at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/6/2244/53704

(I often don't agree with Walters, but he has a reality check
on Arnold's muscle building)

Dan Walters: Schwarzenegger may be putting himself into a political pitfall
By Dan Walters -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, January 6, 2006
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/v-print/story/14...

Arnold Schwarzenegger, exuding equal measures of hubris and naiveté, has repeatedly set up himself and his governorship for failure - promising more than he could deliver, reneging when promises collided with fiscal and political reality, overhyping his modest accomplishments, and confusing Californians by abruptly changing his rhetorical tone.

Having reaped what he sowed - a steep plunge in public esteem and massive rejection of his "year of reform" ballot measures - one might think that Schwarzenegger would approach the governorship more realistically. But he did it again Thursday, pinning his re-election hopes on a grandiose, $222 billion program of public works improvements, and thus digging a pitfall that could be the final resting place of his political career.

"I have absorbed my defeat and I have learned my lesson," a chastened Schwarzenegger told state lawmakers in his annual State of the State address. "And the people, who always have the last word, sent a clear message - cut the warfare, cool the rhetoric, find common ground and fix the problems together."

Evoking politicians of the past who built California's system of public facilities and citing the state's inexorable population growth, Schwarzenegger declared that "our systems are at the breaking point now. We will need more roads, more hospitals, more schools, more nurses, more teachers, more police, more fire, more water, more energy, more ports ... more, more, more. ..."

continued