Why did Arnold win ?

Great Debates
#1

There are a number of reasons why I think Arnold won the state of California.

Here a some of them.

(1) People sick of smear tactics which are perpetrated by disgruntled, miserable people on the left. The groping revelations which were revealed in the last minute had no effect on the recall at all, which is evidenced by Arnold getting more female votes than any other candidate. Also, other sorelosers who already spoke of a new recall before the results were even in, didn’t make the situation any better for the democrats.

(2) His opponents had no chance.

Davis - people hate him, and his drivers licencse bill for Illegal Aliens backfired on him, as quite a bit of the Spanish vote went to Arnold.
Bustamante - Never renounced his ties to that suspicious group MEChA, and came off as arrogant and condescending in that one TV debate.
McClintock - Too conservative to win in California.
Every other candidate was insignificant, and was wasting their time.

(3) People like Arnold, his personality, and him being a celebrity certainly helped. Having the “Terminator” as a Governor is just way cool.

This is primarily why Arnold won. . . . . . . Agree ? Disagree ?

#2

Why did Arnold win?

Duh! He got the most votes!
Seriously, that is what happened. You may think (correctly, IMO) that the rules under which the recall were conducted were composed by some cretin from Mars, but that is the law in CA and has been for more than 70 years. According to those rules, Arnold got the most votes, and consequently, is the governor-elect.

#3

The most votes ? Wow, I would never have thought of that.:smiley:

Yeah, perhaps the title I came up with could have been better.

How about Why did Arnold get the most votes ? The reasons I laid out pertain to that question.

#4

I do believe I’m going to have an aneurysm.

#5

The rules for the recall election are much different than for a general election. This alone gave Arnold a big advantage. Davis had to get >50% of the vote to win - not an easy task. Arnold won with less than 50% of the total votes. It can be argued that Arnold still received more votes than Davis, but the numbers aren’t really clear due to the format of the recall ballot. Also consider that the Dems were in a dilemma regarding the recall. They were forced to support Davis, and couldn’t get another high-profile Dem to counter him without seeming two-faced. Bustamante proved to be a bust. If it were a general election and the Dems could have held a primary, then they could have put all their support into one strong candidate.

As to why Arnold and not someone else? Celebrity status and name recognition is my guess. Outside of the state (I no longer live in CA) Arnold received much more media publicity than the other candidates. My stepson who is 13 thinks it would be “cool” to have him as the Governor. I have no reason to believe this type of thinking was uncommon among many CA voters.

#6

Well, no. Arnold did NOT “get the most votes”.

The “Governator” got about 2,080,000 votes. Davis got around 2,711,000 votes to keep him in. So- something like 600,000 Californians wanted Davis more than Arnold. That’s as of this mornings paper- YMMV. So, no Grump, Arnold did not get more votes than Davis. Although more results may close that gap, I will bet it will not be overcome.

Arnold 'won" because the recall system is fucked up. Assuming the same dudes & dudettes vote the same way in a recall election asking Arnie to be recalled, and Davis to be elected- Davis would win. And- that’s just what’s going to happen- they’ll recall Arnold, and some Dem will win.

Of course, one of the problems was that amoung those who supported Davis, only a modest # voted for Bustamonte, who was a very weak candidate indeed. If Bustamonte had only got the “keep Davis” vote, he’d be Governor.

#7

I think him being socially liberal also had a big to do with it. And Daisy Cutter, you might have had a point in (1), but leading off talking about “disgruntled miserably people on the left” sort of let the air out of that tire.

#8

You have an interesting way of interperting the results.

The people voted either “yes” or “no” on the recall. Some people who were opposed to Davis, voted “no” on the recall. So not everybody who voted “no” on the recall, was doing it just because they love Davis, or they wanted to keep him in office. His approval ratings show otherwise.

And a seperate vote was cast for the candidates running in the recall, so people could vote twice, as they were two seperate issues. You’re comparing two completely different things. And you stated that 2,080,000 people voted “no” on the recall, how many people voted yes ? I see you didn’t supply that figure. :stuck_out_tongue: If you claim that all 2,080,000 votes were for davis, then I can make a similiar claim, that a great majority of the “yes” votes were also for Arnold, if you want to play by that logic.

So Arnold most definitely did get the most amount of votes, in his category, which was for Governor of California. Had the “no recall” people won, then the results on the other question would have been useless.

This will lay the groundwork for a sweeping Bush victory in 2004, much to the delight of all the lefties and whatnots you find in Cailfornia.

:smiley:

#9

A huge amount of people my age (young adult) voted for Arnold because they thought it was “cool”. They liked the idea that he was “punking the system” and saw it as a chance to give a big “fuck you” to the politics in general. The feel empowered and dammit, they are going to do something cool with all this power- not something boring like looking out for their political beliefs (which are likely unformed). They want to leave their mark. It’s kind of a nihlistic anti-intellectual revolt.

Arnold’s views are not outright repugenent to either side of the political perspective. Most of his promises were based on active platitudes along the lines of “I am going to fix everything” and “I will make things change”. I predict that a lot of people are going to gain a lot more respect for politicians when they discover that being an outsider doesn’t mean you can make things happen without the comprimise, laws, and red tape that all poltitians face.

Sadly, I think the allegations of groping worked in Arnold’s favor. America is going through a big “penis” phase. Maybe we feel a bit emasculated by 911. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s an anti-PC backlash- groping women certainly shows that you arn’t bothered by PC bullshit like sensitivity. Anyway, we the quality we are looking for right now is “cocksure”, and Arnold’s got plenty of that.

I can only speak for my generation, but this is what I’ve seen. A desire for "coolness’, Anti-intellectualism, a poltical platform that reads like a high school pep rally and penis worship have combined to convince many people I personally know to vote for Arnold.

#10

Actually, it seems like votes are still being counted, and the figures I used are now outdated (although correctly quoted from this morning’s paper, as I mentioned). As of now, Arnold did get more votes than Davis got.

#11

Even sven, anti-intellectualism??

Im sorry, but I wasnt aware that Davis, or any of the Dems on the ballot for that matter, have degrees in the physical sciences.

Four primary reasons I voted for Arnold:

  1. Hes more of a libertarian than a Repub. Hes using the Repubs for their organisation, an act which I can only admire. I only wish I could see the faces of such people as Limbaugh when Arnie gave his thanks speach flanked by (gasp) Kennedys.

  2. He hasnt so far spouted political party ideology of either side, which means he’s capable of or at least willing to try independant thought.

  3. The public employees unions. I could hate Arnies guts, but the fact that a few days ago firemans unions packed downtown SF in support of Davis pretty much gaurenteed that Davis couldnt have even bought my vote. We have a huuuuge problem with public employees unions here, and the sooner it comes to a head and is dealt with, the better. Why, in the little town of Los Altos, the policemans union has decided to back candidates for city council, and so now ‘off duty’ policemen are going door to door to ‘make sure people are aware of who we support’.

  4. The electric companies. The law forcing all of us to buy our power from two companies needs to be repealed, and now. If that idiot decided to waste everyones money in bailing out PGE instead of letting them go under, then that idiot can pick up the cost himself. Not only should they have never been bailed out, but criminal investigations should have been made. I wonder how much stock Davis owns in PGE or Edison.

#12

even sven, your presence is requested.

#13

How conveniently you left out the fact that Arnold also had to run against another Republican, McClintock, who got 13% of the vote. In a “real” election, it would’ve been Arnold solo, and he’d’ve gotten most of McClintock’s votes.

Anyone looking at this objectively can only conclude one thing:

Arnold won BIG!

#14

In a “real” election, Arnold would have a hard time making it out of the Republican primary. The conservative base has been taking control of the party apparatus in California for some time now, and would not rally behind a social liberal who seems unlikely to cut spending.

#15

Hell, don’t ask me. I’m still trying to figure out how a bullet-headed Saxon mother’s son like Jesse Ventura got elected governor of MN.

(Though you gotta admit - an inaugaration party where the Gov wheres a feather boa and a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt - almost worth the price of admission…)

#16

Not so. Arnold had the backing of all the big guns in the CA GOP. They had a very good hard core conservative, McClintock, to back, but they didn’t. The lined up behing Arnold.

#17

Thank you for showing off your utter ignorance. He did not need to get a majority of votes and HE DID NOT get a majority of votes when he was elected. He merely got a plurality, and fewer people voted for him than voted in the recall election.

#18

Actually, according to the latest results, by your deffinition, Arnold did get the most votes.

#19

DrDeth is comparing the Yes/No on the recall vote with the number of votes that Arnie actually got. Apples to well-muscled oranges.

#20

Actually, Deth just used preliminary numbers and has realized that the final numbers contradict his earlier claims. Of course his earlier claims neglected the fact that the recall question was binary, while the vote for governer was split between 135 candidates.