Blog Master G

Apparently entertainment and government are no longer different. California voters yesterday voted to recall Gray Davis 55% to 45% and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected by a landslide to replace him. The giant headline in this morning’s Chronicle is Schwarzenegger Leads Voter Revolt, followed by a number of other stories. Fair enough. Unfortunate, yes, but the voters have spoken.

I’m just glad the Chron opted against using the front page that Phil Bronstein held in front of the camera on CNN last night: Nothing but a giant photo of Arnold’s head, taking up the entire page. They instead chose a more tasteful photo of Maria Shriver and Arnold celebrating.

I guess I’m not too surprised that Arnold won. I was maintaining a shred of hope that the recall would be shot down. It’s just sad that people would rather have an action hero for a governor than someone who’s knowledgeable about government. And that he could replace a governor who committed no crime is pretty shocking. California’s budget deficit was not the fault of Davis, nor was it any secret. Yet he was chastized for it.

So I ask again: Why is Bush not held to the same accountability for the federal deficit, which is now larger than it’s ever been? He took it from a record surplus, too. And, of course, many of the problems in California stem from Bush’s friends at Enron, who may, in fact, have contributed to the recall effort.

I suppose I must admit that as a kid, I was a big admirer of Arnold, so in a different time and in a different place in my life, I would probably be ecstatic that the people chose him to run this great state. Knowing what I do now, however, I’m not thrilled.

All we can do now is hope for the best. The optimist in me would like to believe that Arnold will do a good job running the state. Who knows? Maybe he’ll figure out a way to fix the deficit; the people in this overwhelmingly Democratic state seem to think so.

Of course, the really good news in yesterday’s election is that Propositions 53 and 54 were both defeated.