The Feld-Blog

The Governator (sorry to perpetuate this ridiculously awful joke) is scrambling to find support. He’s juggling too many sticks of political dynamite. Arnold is trying to push an incredibly unpopular special election slate with probably the only approval ratings in the country lower than Bush’s. He’s trying to launch his re-election campaign, and dig himself out of the whole he dug by spoiling most of his liberal campaign promises, all while refusing to appear with President Bush. He announced a veto of groundbreaking and long-overdue gay rights legislation in an attempt to shore up his conservative base, only to piss them off with something else: campaigning with perhaps the most liberal Republican Senator: John McCain.

The only thing more surprising than that Arnold would ask McCain to come to California to advocate for the special election ballot is the McCain agreed. Arnold is sputtering around, tripping over himself at every turn. He can’t decide whether he wants to shore up his base or reach out to Democrats, and now he is only succeeding in alienating both. McCains presence probably only concerns Republicans since McCain himself is not particularly conservative and specifically is one of the biggest advocates of Campaign Finance Reform - normally thought of as a Democratic issue and a sore spot to many Republicans in Orange County. Furthermore, since Arnold is one of the biggest utilizers of so-called ‘soft money,’ I can’t quite understand what motivated McCain to ally himself with Arnold.

All in all I am not sure who wins here. Dems are dead-set against these measures already, and even the moderate face of John McCain probably wont convince them to change their minds, especially with the sappy Arnold-is-bad-for-teachers adds constantly streaming from television sets all over California. Similarly, McCain is not exactly a galvanizing force in the Republican party so he’ll do little to help the Governor consolidate his supporters or turn conservatives back to his side.

I guess this whole incident just leaves me thinking: WHHAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?!