Bye-Bye to Arnold in 2010
2010 is the year we will say goodbye to Gov. Schwarzenegger, and he's got a lot left to do and little time to do it, and a weakened position from which to act.
The L.A. Times pretty much writes him offas a lame duck moving into 2010:
legislators have already begun sensing that as a lame duck he is easy prey and openly disregard some of his wishes. Members of his staff have steadily been quitting, and replacements are hard to come by....That Schwarzenegger's power is waning was evident last month....in the decision by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to kill the governor's reappointment of Rachelle Chong to a six-year term on the Public Utilities Commission without a confirmation hearing. Steinberg cited Chong's record as the problem but also indicated that he is likely to reject more of Schwarzenegger's appointees whose terms would last well into the next governor's tenure.... The politics are straightforward. The power to give a governor anything he might want is a bargaining chit for lawmakers. But these chits may hold more value with a governor who will have up to eight years to serve. Schwarzenegger, by contrast, has fewer chances to punish lawmakers who defy him and fewer issues he can use as leverage to negotiate.
The Sacramento Bee assesses a governor who has failed to leverage his celebrity power or initial popularity to achieve long-lasting fiscal discipline, and who faces trying to slow down the looming pension crisis as a threat to his longterm legacy. Schwarzenegger also hopes to reshape the way California's electoral system works on his way out:
The governor and his lieutenant governor appointee, Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, plan to push a statewide primary measure allowing the top two finishers, regardless of party, to face off in a general election. Combined with a 2008 voter-approved change to have a citizens panel draw legislative district boundaries, the governor believes the new primary system would create more competitive legislative races - and in turn, better legislators.
Schwarzenegger will be delivering his State of the State address on Wednesday.
A trip down memory lane: the days, six years ago, when respectable political analysts and major national magazines thought Schwarzenegger was the future of American politics.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user d_vdm. It was used under user Creative Commons license.
