How did Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s weekend go? He is not out of the woods, but he did get through what seemed a few weeks ago to be a particularly dark passage in the forest relatively unscathed. Which is a good thing for him, since a Democrat who may be as rich as he is is just starting up his TV ad drive, as reported below.
Most political conventions are like ordering clam chowder in a cheap roadside diner. You search for the clams while encountering an awful lot of potatoes. They are useful for trawling for shards of information.
For Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, this state Republican convention in San Jose was most important for what did not happen. Unlike his sometimes moderate predecessor, former Governor Pete Wilson, the former action superstar was neither hung nor burned in effigy. There were only a few nasty flyers floating around, only one of them memorable, depicting the ex-Terminator in drag as a Symbionese Liberation Army era Patty Hearst. (None called the pro-choice Arnold a “babykiller,” as a widely distributed flyer hitting ex-L.A. Mayor Dick Riordan did four years ago.) There were no anti-Arnold signs or t-shirts or buttons. If there were anti-Arnold stickers, I don’t remember them. No RINO (Republican In Name Only) posters. No demonstrations.
The only flashes of excitement, in a controversial sense, came — as I blogged in real time — with dueling back to back press conferences Saturday afternoon. Following the defeat of four of five of their resolutions criticizing Schwarzenegger in the party’s resolutions committee, conservative activists said they had had the rug pulled out of from under them after promising to make nice during weeks of negotiation. The state party chairman countered, saying the rightists were mistaken in their interpretation of any deal. Aside from that brief firefight, there was no drama in what had looked at one time like a potentially dramatic weekend.
Schwarzenegger’s new political team clearly did a fine job in tamping down the anti-Arnold rebellion on the right and presenting, if not a unified front for the party, at least a mostly mollified front. News stories reflected the dissension, and the ongoing dissatisfaction with his leftward lurch that still percolates, but it could have been far worse for the governor.
Yet in quelling the rebellion, most of the energy was also leached out of the affair. Surveying the broad expanse of the lobby and bar area of the host Fairmont Hotel during the weekend, one seldom got the sense that a political convention was taking place. There were pro-Arnold signs, but not all that many, and they mostly showed up after the governor left Friday night. And those signs were for “Arnold and Tom,” Tom being not Schwarzenegger sidekick Tom Arnold but state Senator Tom McClintock, the conservative darling running for lieutenant governor.
I wonder if the cerebral McClintock ever imagined he would grow up to be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodyguard.
The governor’s much anticipated speech to the party’s kickoff banquet Friday night was, as CNN commentator Bill Schneider told me, “very polished.” He hit his new/old themes of building for California’s future, ran through a litany of his administration’s successes and even mildly challenged his party towards the end, alluding to its lack of success in statewide races other than his own by saying they needed “to rebuild the party by rebuilding California.”
In an interesting move, Schwarzenegger did little rhetorically to cater to his party’s right wing, aside from prominently noting his current opposition to tax increases. He mentioned his support for the anti-child molester “Jessica’s Law,” the death penalty, and concern about illegal immigration. But he punched none of those hot buttons up in the speech. Nor did he really go after the Democrats. It was an intriguing set of choices, not necessarily all the ones I would have suggested, but they did reflect he and his new team’s understanding of the tightrope he must walk on his path toward re-election.
Schwarzenegger is a frequently compelling speaker, and he was mostly on his game in his convention speech. Yet his reception was more dutiful than enthusiastic. Catching up with the governor after his formal address, I found he caught more of the old magic at a private reception for volunteers. There, with a mostly younger crowd, he exhibited his old superstar appeal, with people mobbing him for cell phone photos, calling friends to have him say hello in his easily recognizable voice, and the like.
His Sunday appearance on Meet The Press with host Tim Russert, an old pal of First Lady Maria Shriver, was more problematic. Russert, the former Mario Cuomo advisor who is now frequently scored by liberal critics for softball treatment of Bush Administration luminaries, came at Schwarzenegger with a sustained series of critical questions. It might have been bad for Arnold had Russert bored in on one or two of his answers, rather than simply present everything his researchers had arrayed for him in a rat-a-tat-tat of carefully produced controversy, but the action governor did appear a tad nettled at times beneath his trademark affable aplomb.
He can’t have enjoyed watching a clip of old friend Warren Beatty ripping his “fake” politics last fall, or Democratic strategist Bob Mulholland quoted calling him a French poodle instead of a pitbull, and the various questions about his change in direction and expansive fiscal policies. Arnold mostly attempted to slip the punches, as in this response to the Beatty broadsides: “I never respond to Warren because I know Warren for too long and I think it would be wrong, you know, to respond to that.” Um, okay. Huh? Because, well, he’s not running for governor, it seems. Which is a definition of public debate of his policies and governorship that is noteworthy for how closed off it is. Not that Arnold is responding to the two main candidates who are running for governor.
Affability and survivability are the present order of the day in Schwarzworld. Which is not exactly dumb. Schwarzenegger more than survived a dangerous weekend and, in Washington for the National Governors Association conference, showed his continued star power by taking up over half of Meet The Press with a mostly effective, gaffe-free performance.
Well, there was this one thing. You knew there would be something.
MR. RUSSERT: And the estimates are you plan to spend $120 million dollars on your reelection effort. When you first ran, you…
GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: That number didn’t come from me, may I remind you. It was some outsider that has nothing to do with us has said that, OK? I don’t ever talk about numbers of what it will cost us. I couldn’t even tell you what it costs us. But the bottom line is, elections are very expensive, you’re absolutely correct.
That is a very interesting disavowal. Actually, as reported here, the $120 million figure, laughable as it is, was most assuredly the fundraising target number floating around Schwarzworld for a few weeks before surfacing in news reports of a private talk to the California Business Roundtable on the governor’s behalf by former gubernatorial communications director Rob Stutzman. Stutzman is no longer in the Governor’s Office, nor is he on the re-election campaign, as most outlets reported he would be. But he does work for the state Republican Party and in fact helped run Schwarzenegger’s operation at the state convention. Which hardly makes him “some outsider that has nothing to do with us.”
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| Comments (13) |
Re: McClintock–ah, what a person will do to get ahead, no surprise there.
Re: the Right Wing–they got rolled. They’re easy to roll. Who exactly is their voice? Two unelected officials with web sites? A lunch with Arnold, where he stuffs one of his personalized cigars in their suit pocket, is all it takes to roll those cats. Maybe less than that.
Re: his appearance on MTP. I thought he did fairly well. Stayed above the fray, stayed mostly (though at times inarticulately) positive, he dodged the bullets like a good pol, and now with all this behind him expect a lot of events (like the levee tour) showing him looking like an executive in command.
Re: bad clam chowder–if Westly make sit down to SLO and you come to cover him, I’ll take you all to the best chowder in Pismo Beach.
And those signs were for “Arnold and Tom,”
It certainly was the sensible thing to do, i.e., to quell the rebellion…but what are they thinking?…how serious is this “team stuff”? Are Arnold’s political people thinking that by profiling and helping Tom, that will be enough to get the disenchanted Reps out to work and vote… and as long as they are working and voting for TOM they will grudgingly come along for Arnold?
Mr. Bradley, The Bee is reporting that Arnold is getting ready to do another Blackhawk levee fly over with Chertoff !!!!..I think he read NWN last night and saw the big news about Westly and called Susie and said “to heck with my Hummer ….this is war! …we have to keep those Blackhawks flying!
Too funny, Adam! John Flashreport Fleischman folded when Schwarzeneger did a fundraiser for his boss, Sheriff of Orange County ‘Hotpants’ Carona.
Ann, you remember he rolled the Dems that first year too. Reduced Burton to a giggling teenager. There were Dem lawmakers showing those personalized cigars he gave him like they were locks of Ringo’s hair! It was embarrassing.
Never underestimate the charm of an international movie star.
Barbara, lol!
Look! Up in the air, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s the Guvernator in a Blackhawk!
Bill it looks like you and Skelton are on the same wavelength.
The bottom line is a vote gain in the middle does not balance out the loss of a true believer.
Arnold tried the swerve to the right last year, and look what it got him. And his words of support to the minuteman crazies offended Latinos. So what’s a grown man with an identity crisis to do?
According to Bradley and Skelton, what he needed to do was throw out some rhetorical red meat to the right wingers. Is that all they wanted? Those two heavily quoted activists with web sites would have been happy with that?
Looks like Arnold’s banking on being Arnold to get him re-elected. Only problem is: who is Arnold?
What do true-believers want? The folks George Skelton says should have been allowed their red meat–are they driven by issues? Do they want to elect Republicans candidates or only those candidates who espouse/will push a certain agenda and never compromise?
Primaries are mostly for the party faithful, who are the hardcore of their parties (volunteers and donors) that tend to be more ideological than the general electroate. Remember the attempt by the party big-shots to argue that Richard Riordan was the best choice because he was electable didn’t get much traction among the rank and file? And doesn’t Arnold sound like he was making a similar pitch on MTP that was made for Riordan?
Rob Stutzman is REALLY out now. lol
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All my respect goes to those suffering, be it you personally or a family member. My hope is for a major development in the near future to help all those in need.
The Flyers totally dominated Montreal despite the mysterious skate dulling substance Philadelphia were subjected to in Game Four.