We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Governor Ah-nie

Matt Drudge is predicting a comfortable Ah-nie victory in California.

LATEST EXIT POLLS SHOW 59% VOTE ‘YES’ FOR RECALL, TOP CAMPAIGN AND MEDIA SOURCES TELL DRUDGE REPORT, 51% FOR SCHWARZENEGGER, 30% FOR BUSTAMANTE, 13% MCCLINTOCK….

My prediction: the Guardian will denounce the result as an ‘illegitimate power-grab’ before the end of the week.

24 comments to Governor Ah-nie

  • Gunner

    If the Guardian is a daily I would say within two days it will happen.

  • Steve in Houston

    Early returns have much of the media over here walking around in a daze.

    Lawyers are heading to California much as gold rushers did in 1849.

    It s a grand night for watching people of a certain calcified mindset trying desperately to figure out how Arnold and the other Republican, Tom McClintock, have somehow managed to garner around 60% of the vote in California. And they can’t blame it on low turnout…

  • Dishman

    I voted in the morning. I took my roommate down to vote in the afternoon. Both of us voted for Arnold.
    Poll workers were saying that it was a substantial turnout, heavier than the last gubernatorial election.

  • BigFire

    Well, I voted 2 weeks ago. Voted for Arnold, though McClintock’s view on economy is closer. I just want to make sure of 2 things:

    1. I fired Gray Davis.
    2. Cruz Bustamante isn’t elected.

    With that in mind, I choose Arnold.

  • Kodiak

    A very sad day indeed for California…

    Let’s hope Schwaezenegger isn’t to wage a preventive war against tax-attractive Nevada. Sniff…

  • Laurie K.

    >>A very sad day indeed for California…<< Not nearly as sad as the last 11 months. The voters decided they'd had enough of the devil they knew, and decided to give a shot to the devil they don't. Davis was undone by his own spectacular hubrid, greed, and power-lust. Bustamante decided all he needed was to point out to the state's Hispanic voters that he's one of them, and that he'd magically get their votes. Kudos to those who did not fall into that trap. Both Democrats stumped to left-wing of the party, uncharacteristically. McClintock is too far right to appeal to the mainstream. There was only one really centrist candidate, and he won. It was also a very, very bad election in which to be an elected official stumping for office. The phrase "they're part of the problem" was a phrase I heard again and again today in regards to Bustamante and McClintock. Laurie K.

  • CGeib

    Not only the Guardian, but the European ruling class as well. I mean, Californians not only committed democracy, they held their politicians accountable for a real governmental mess. The bastards.

  • fnyser

    That assclown Jesse Jackson was spewing a load of crap about disenfranchised voters before vote 1 had been counted…..I’m sure the Guardian will be on it tomorrow.

    Check out the last bit in this cnn article on Arnold’s victory

    “He has also been dogged by allegations that he expressed admiration for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a 1975 interview, though those charges largely dissipated after two figures involved in the interview discounted them. Schwarzenegger, who, like Hitler, is a native of Austria, has vehemently denied that he ever had Nazi sympathies.”

  • Dishman

    Kodiak, if I understand correctly, you live in France.
    I don’t think you really appreciate how much of a mess California has become. I’ve said here that I would vote for Cthulu for governor (rather than settling for the lesser evil). It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

    Davis was unpopular for a number of reasons, including quid pro quo, concealing problems and failing to make tough choices.

    If there’s anything sad, it’s that we’ve condemned a man to one of the worst jobs in California.

  • Edmund Burke

    Dishman

    Anyone living in France would know only too well what would happen to California if it continued down it’s recent path. However I doubt if California is anywhere near as bad as France. France hasn’t had a budget surplus since 1980.

    Yup, that’s 23 years of ever-growing debt. But then Kodiak probably thinks that’s a good thing, as long as its been used to finance current consumption.

  • FeloniousPunk

    Doubt has been cast several times on Kodiak’s claims that he’s French, including by other Frenchmen.

    Come on folks, I can’t believe you take the guy seriously given his history here. He’s a troll, straight up.

  • EU Delenda Est

    To the rabid European left, Californians have irresponsibly committed the error of voting while sane and we can look forward to supercilious, patronising sneers from the media chatterati in countries whose economies are lurching around under discredited, old-fashioned socialist thinking. And we will probably hear from a few more women who were so outraged to be groped by Schwarzenegger that they could barely keep their mouths shut for the 25 intervening years.

    Californians have done well with the showbiz personalities they have voted into public office. Old time movie star George Murphy was a successful governor. So was Ronald Reagan. The people of Carmel voted Clint Eastwood in as mayor twice. Sonny Bono also ran for mayor of a town I can’t remember, but he seemed to be a popular mayor and got in twice. I believe there are a few more I can’t remember. From the minute he announced that he was running, there was never the slightest doubt that Arnold would win. I think he’ll be an effective governor. He made his first million at age 18, before he ever left Austria. He made his second million after he moved to California, but before he got into the movies. Then he became the biggest movie star in the world. I think he’s a pretty focused thinker.

  • Dave O'Neill

    Has the situation in CA got significantly worse than at the last election?

    Given the state of the State when I was living there in 2001 I was rather surprised he won then.

    Out of morbid curiosity I am wondering what changed?

    I’m also openning an informal book on the Arnie Recall 😉

  • Cydonia

    Sadly I doubt that anything will change.

    According to the BBC, almost half of California’s budget is spent on State “education”. Any politician with the slightest libertarian leanings would hack away at that, but Arnie has (again according to the BBC) pledged not to touch the “education” budget.

    Ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3173366.stm

  • fnyser

    Cydonia; you’re right but there is a ray of hope. One can provide vouchers and charter schools without decreasing “school funding.” I don’t think it’s impossible.

    CA passed total immersion English and threw out bilingual education. All the guilty white liberals were suprised when the biggest support for that measure came from Spanish speakers: they realized speaking Spanglish was a great way to get a career as a dishwasher. There’s more and more support for alternatives to public school esp. in the “minority” community so…..maybe a step in the right direction.

  • Kodiak

    fnyser: All the guilty white liberals were suprised when the biggest support for that measure came from Spanish speakers: they realized speaking Spanglish was a great way to get a career as a dishwasher.

    Are you afraid of the plausible return of California back to Mexico?

    iHasta luego, cariño!

  • bear, the (one each)

    George Murphy was a senator, and a damned awful one, too. He was a joke.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Arnie is someone about whom I have a few doubts politically. Questions:

    will he:

    1, cut taxes and spending?
    2, deregulate business?
    3, protect the second amendment?
    4, take on the public sector unions, lobby groups, and the Greens?

    If we get say, yes to two out of four, he’ll be worth it.

    Kodiak – I can understand why you should resent Arnie’s win. Just think about it, a guy from a humble Austrian village chooses, yes, chooses to live in that sink of vulgarity, America. He achieves fame through that crass avenue of body building. Even worse, he goes into the movies, makes lots of crass films like Terminator. He makes himself very rich, and joins the Republican Party. A classic American story of immigrant kid making good.

    It is, naturally, totally outside the mental universe of your average French voter to contemplate Arnie’s story with ease. There is hardly any parallel in French politics in recent decades.

  • JSAllison

    Don’t mind me I’m just spreading a small meme… “Hasta La Vista, Grayby”

  • R.C. Dean

    We’ll have to wait for the final tallies, of course, but I am pretty sure Arnold got a higher percentage of the vote and a higher number of votes than Gray Davis did last year.

  • Verity

    JS Allison … as Mark Steyn wrote.

  • HTY

    Soon to be followed by the BBC’s denunciation.