Arnold

As governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to get off to a solid start.  This year he was quite ambitious, drafting four initiatives meant to straighten out the state's finances as well as some other domestic issues.  Unfortunately, all four initiatives went down to defeat this week.

After a couple of days of reflection, Schwarzenegger stepped forward today announcing that he will engage in more cooperation with the legislature rather than taking them on through special elections.  In his press conference, he remarked that, "I operate with a different mentality," and cited the need for more patience.  In my opinion, his mentality is a better one, and the selfish attitudes of lawmakers in California (or most anywhere else) are the problem.

For example, one of the initiatives that was defeated would have allowed a panel of retired judges to perform redistricting, not the legislators themselves.  Legislators obviously have a biased interest in redistricting, and both parties have been known to stack the deck in their favor, given a chance.  However, much to my amazement, this initiative failed.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why people would vote against it - it's simply wrong on principle.

With the defeat of all Schwarzenegger's intitatives, the Democrats are drooling at the thought of knocking him out of office in 2006.  They shouldn't get their hopes up.  Plenty of other California governors have hit low points in approval ratings.  Besides, these people should realize how driven Schwarzenegger is.  He already has a massive war chest, and has no intentions of leaving office.  A year from now, Arnold will still be the governor and California will be better off for it.