Schwarzenegger: Support Of Prop 187 Was Mistake

[Kadie]

Jul 25, 2006 6:08 pm US/Pacific

Schwarzenegger: Support Of Prop 187 Was Mistake

(AP)

snip...
"I could be criticized for flip-flopping, but better to say I was wrong than to hold onto something that isn't my view," Schwarzenegger told reporters on the first day of a campaign bus tour.

snip...
Schwarzenegger made the statement during his "Protecting the California Dream" bus tour, which got off to a rocky start when the governor was heckled during his first appearance -- a town hall meeting in the San Diego County community of La Mesa.

snip...
"Never get mad at anyone who is trying to come to this country. Get mad at the federal government which is not securing our borders," Schwarzenegger told the crowd.

Afterward, Schwarzenegger told reporters he was troubled by some of the comments and surprised by their tone.

"It was pretty much the first time I saw the intensity of prejudice," Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself, said. "This one woman came up to me and said, 'Stop the invasion.' It was that kind of dialogue, and not 'Hey, is there something we can do about immigration?' And I think that's going into a dangerous area."

more...
http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_206211116.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Boo..hoo..too little too late....

[eleny]

2. Or is he practicing the neocon way - lying to get what he wants

[Cha]

4. he lied to get in the

first time. he has to be held accountable for those lies and then start on his second campaign.

[Cleita]

7. Uh huh, you've got it.

:applause:

[demosincebirth]

3. Pretty much the first time he saw this intensity of prejudice?

I guess he doesn't know too many average republican.

[bananas]

6. He probably doesn't

he's more of a hollywood liberal than an average republican.

[David Zephyr]

5. Why now? Why is he apologizing now? Oh...the election...

Did he just this moment realize what a shitty proposition it was? What, at this time, was the catalyst for his conversion?

November.

[Cleita]

8. Does he realize because he was an illegal immigrant at first too

that he who lives in a glass house shouldn't have thrown those stones? Looks like the hens are coming home to roost.

[David Zephyr]

11. Exactly.

Let's just hope that his death-bed conversion is seen for what it is: raw political ambition.

Hi Cleita! :hi:

[Bucky]

9. God bless his idiot heart, I think he's sincere.

What I think is that Schwarzenegger is a pretty smart guy with a big fat ego that blinded him to the fire he was playing with when he jumped into bed with the fundy right. He wanted the adulation of the crowds and he wanted to protect his big fat jillionaire friends and--mostly--he wanted to see his ego stroked by holding power and winning an election as governor. Assuming everything's "functional" after a lifetime of steroids, I imagine he spent his first few months in the governor's mansion jerking off at night while humming "Hail to the Chief" and fantasizing about his own personal Constitutional amendment.

And, I mean, who doesn't do that? :blush:

But now he's seeing that the righties that he riled up to vote for him are really nutso. They're not like the harmless fans. They're real people who, when their leaders play the "us vs them" card and demogogue on immigration issues, become scared of foriegners and eventually spiteful and even hateful of anyone who seems even vaguely "brown" to them. He's helped unleash a monster and, Frankenstein like, now doesn't know how to deal with it. I'm not in the least surprised by this streak of "decency" coming from him. He's led a charmed and somewhat decadent life surrounded by sophisticated and permissive people.

He doesn't understand what it's like to fear for your job, which is what a lot of people who are scared by immigration are really worried about. He thought it was a harmless paranoia, a cheap gimmick to worry folks into supporting him, never realizing that when you fuck with peoples' heads to get their votes--as his "nice" Republican advisor friends have told him to do all along--the result is that you have whipped up ugly sentiments among the voters. To him Mexican immigrants are a source of cheap lawn work, not a potential job competitor. But scaring people about a Mexican "invasion" seemed like such an easy vote-getter when the only thing he had to worry about was looking pretty on Jay Leno.

Leadership isn't about cute campaign slogans and getting votes, Governor Dumbass. It's about offering vision and hope and solid plans for solving problems. Having failed to offer real leadership when he's had the choice, having fucked around on the public payroll for the past two years and accomplishing nothing, having benefited from the misaprehension of what immigration means to his state's economy, now he's suddenly recoiling from the taste of the potion he whipped up.

Like the poster above said, "Boo-hoo, Governor." You made this bed. Sleep in it.

[Cleita]

10. I don't want him for my governor for any reason because

of the way he was put in office. Now if he had run legitimately against Grey Davis at this time when Davis's term would have been up, and if he won, I could have accepted him a little more easily. The way it was done was pure opportunistic egoism. This is someone who isn't really interested in working for the people but likes the power he would gain along with the fame he already had.

Also, remember when Davis was swiftboatstyle recalled, he had been just elected for a second term. Apparently the electorate thought he was doing as good a job as he could under the circumstances of the Enron engineered cheating of California. There was no reason to recall him that quickly.

Arnold does not have my respect nor my support even if he walks on water one of these days.

[WI_DEM]

12. And I'll bet that the voters will buy this and re-elect him

[Cleita]

13. This voter won't, but if California Dems don't start hitting

hard with a campaign to expose his deceitful flip flops the dopey ones will.