Ye Olde Rad Blog

Arnold wins! It wasn't even close.

I was surprised to hear this is big news not only here in California, but everywhere around the world. The thing people find so interesting (I think) about this election has nothing to do with politics, but rather that an immigrant (from Austria) can come to this country with nothing more than a burning ambition and become a movie star and the governor of its most populous state. I mean, he can't even annunciate the language very well. Yet he's living the American dream like nobody else.

What really pissed off most people about Gray Davis (old governor) was the car tax. A few days before the election, everyone started getting bills in the mail, tripling their car tax. The timing couldn't have been any worse. This meant that a typical 2-car family would end up paying ~$1,000 in car-tax alone. Arnold said he would repeal the car tax. Many people went to the polls, not to vote for Arnold, but rather to vote *against* the car tax.

The thing that cinched it for me was when Arnold stood up and admitted wrong-doing, after they accused him of groping women. It wasn't the act that caught my attention, but rather that he admitted guilt. Most politicians deny wrong-doing unless presented with 8x10 color glossy photographs, containing a date & time stamp, signed by the photographer & notorized.

Remember Tricy Dick? (I never even *heard* of Watergate.) .. and Wild Bill? (I never had sexual relations with that woman.) Both denied everything until the bitter end. That's when I knew Arnold was one of us (human beings) and not one of them (lawyer-politicians).

Seems Arnold genuinely intends to do good for the state. Maybe it's because he's married to a Kennedy, but I can't help but feel that people who genuinely want to do good (such as JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King) for the average person, end up getting shot. I'm sure his wife Maria had that conversation with him.

As the laws sit right now, you have to be born in this country to become president. But if those laws change, which they might, it wouldn't surprise me if Arnold becomes president one day.