Close but no Cigar, Ahnold
F/B from a Cahleefohrneeian
Spot on:
Ahnold: “Everyone was trying their best, but the buck stops with me. I take full responsibility for this special election. I take full responsibility for its failure. I take full responsibility for everything."
I’ll grant that just doing it is a helluva lot more graceful than bragging about being ‘the kind of guy’ who does it—but he did it. Good Thing.
”...if I would do another Terminator movie, I would have Terminator travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have a special election."
Nonononononono. This is where ya lost, Ahnold.
I listened—and I am more tuned in than the average voter—and yanno what I heard from you? Nut.In. Zip. Zero. Nada. *crickets* I did hear “Ahnold is going here” “Ahnold is going there”—nowhere near me. I heard no sound bites from those appearances on the news [surprised, Ahnold?]
More on point—I heard piles and piles and interminable piles of horse hockey from the opposition—all sounding, *if* one had done no homework—quite reasonable. Let’s review: what did I hear from you, Ahnold? *crickets*
Perhaps the Terminator would have counseled you to quit running up and down the state convincing the 12 people who already agreed with your Props—he would have told you “Qvit being Bush-like unt SPEAK. Clearly.” $250 million of union-confiscated dollars spent by your opposition bought a lotta hot air.
... “I should have also listened to my wife, who said to me ‘Don’t do this.’"
Listening to Kennedys?!?? Do NOT go down that road, Ahnold—that way lies scotch-soaked maddnessssssss!!!!!
I was not “following” the election but you couldn’t avoid the barrage of negative television ads for the last six weeks or so, and I was instantly alerted that something was wrong because the opposition ads were all all-about-money—which is particularly not what you should be hearing from a teacher in one of the low-scoring states where funding is highest. There is a critical problem with the method and philosophy and practice of education in this country and NOBODY was talking about that. Unfortunately only one of the counter-ads (the redistricting prop) ever actually said, “no, it’s about fairness and voter responsibilty and getting out from under the special interests”
There is an obvious problem with the Governor’s strategy—he conceded the ground on the television ads for all but one of the propositions. At no time did I ever hear anyone say, look, if you want things to change, you actually have to change. Ahnold badly needed to reframe what passed for “the debate” and that is where he failed.
Posted by on 11/12/05 at 09:02 AMYep—I find it eerily like the lack o’ response to the attacks on the Bush Admin. The attacks are to facts as J-ELLO is to granite yet when there is no response.....
Indeed—“the government we will tolerate.”
Posted by Claire on 11/13/05 at 08:16 AMDid you post that quip elsewhere? I didn’t see it.
About the Bush administration, I don’t know—it seems to me that Bush wins by not encouraging or participating in a discussion; there are a whole lot of issues that are framed in such a way that, irrespective of the facts, there’s simply no way for him to come out ahead in the conversation. His best tactic is not to engage.
It seems to me that the situation with Good Governor Schw[eick]arzenneger is somewhat different: it’s true he can’t win on the “you’re taking our moneeeeeee away” argument; he is. He can make points but he can’t win on the corrupt union administration issue—but he can win on the “you told me to make changes, so how come you’re not allowing me to make changes?” issue.
Posted by on 11/13/05 at 11:29 AM
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